Twin Peaks Charter to Open Preschool in 2018

In the fall of 2018, Twin Peaks Charter Academy in Longmont will launch a new program to attract the youngest students. In mid-February, the school’s board of directors approved the addition of a preschool program to the K-12 school.

The program was the brainchild of K-5 Principal Amber Coniff and Executive Director Joe Mehsling, who both started at the school in 2016. They noticed many St. Vrain schools have preschool programs and wanted to give Twin Peaks families the opportunity to start their three to five-year-olds at the school instead of having to enroll them elsewhere for their first two years of education.

“We’re gearing up everything and we’re really excited to expand our program,“ Coniff said when describing the preparations that are already underway. “We are very lucky that we have a large facility so we don’t have to build new classrooms,” she said.

Twin Peaks will add an enclosed preschool section to the existing school playground. The school is also currently hiring a preschool director, who will make important program decisions and will hire the preschool staff in the coming months.

As for instruction, the preschool will use the Core Knowledge curriculum already in place for grades K-8. “Core Knowledge is a foundational knowledge that we believe all citizens need to know from a young age. It’s a spiraling curriculum that gives kids the foundational knowledge they need in literacy, math, science, and the arts,” Coniff said. With Core Knowledge, students in preschool will learn skills and topics that will provide a foundation for further, more in-depth studies in later grades.

The preschool will have three different class options. There will be a two-day morning program for three and four-year-olds. And families can choose between either a three-morning or four-afternoon program for four to five-year-olds.

Twin Peaks Charter Academy is located at 340 South Sunset Street in Longmont, less than a mile north of Sunset Middle School. The school hopes that preschool families who have been displaced by the closing of Niwot’s Neighborhood Learning Center after the current school year will consider enrolling their students at Twin Peaks in the fall.

For more information on the preschool program or to register a student, visit the school’s website at http://www.twinpeakscharter.org/preschool.