MOORPARK : District Runs 1st County Preschool for Migrants

For many migrant families working in Ventura County, the end of the harvest season brings not only an end to jobs but an end to the education of their children.

Children of migrant workers who return to Mexico until work is available in the United States may be out of the classroom for as much as a year at a time.

“These students are having great difficulty when they move and come back,” said Lenna Reyes, coordinator for migrant education for the Moorpark Unified School District. “Over half have to be retained in kindergarten.”

To help, the district runs Ventura County’s first fully funded preschool solely for children of migrant workers.

“I believe if help is given early enough, it will make a difference in a child’s ability to be successful in kindergarten and the first grade,” Reyes said.

The initial $25,000 funding for the preschool, Reyes said, came from a special project fund for migrant education, consisting of federal money disbursed by the state.

One teacher and an aide teach 26 children from ages 3 to 5, who are enrolled free of charge in weekday classes from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. The room, transportation and other services are donated by the Moorpark Unified School District, Reyes said.

Students in the Migrant Education Program receive tailor-made instruction that can help their transition into kindergarten, in addition to learning math, art, writing skills and how to follow directions, said Sylvia Bravo, the migrant preschool’s teacher.

“Everything is total Spanish,” Bravo said.

She added that it’s important “for them to feel comfortable with their own language. What these kids will find is a bilingual kindergarten. So they will be picking up English within the class.”

There is now a waiting list, and a second class is planned next year, Reyes said.

Justina Orajeda volunteers once a week in the classroom where her 4-year-old daughter, Roseo, is enrolled.

“I like it because when” the students “go to kindergarten, they understand it much better,” said Orajeda, a 14-year Moorpark resident who works in Fresno each summer picking peaches.

Orajeda said that Roseo is her only child out of six to go to preschool, and that the program is good because she is “learning how to count in English and Spanish . . . how to get along with others.”

“I love being in school,” Roseo said. “I paint art . . . rainbows. And then I draw flowers and then I eat.”