Conversations surrounding Pre-K enrollment in Sampson County Schools became the focus of discussion Monday as the Sampson County Board of Education considered approval of the 2026-27 contract for those services, offered through the Partnership for Children.
In the end, the board gave the green light to the contract by a unanimous vote.
“It’s always a struggle. Every year, it seems like it shifts in which school has the most Pre-K,” Superintendent Dr. Jamie King said in discussing the contract and the number of the slots the school system gets for the program. “So it just depends on the year, but we do definitely involve community schools, we involve the principals, and I’ll say again, kudos to the Partnership; they’ve been great in just trying to step up and help us fill all of those seats.”
North Carolina Pre-K is a state-funded early childhood education program designed to prepare 4-year-olds for success in kindergarten. Funds are allocated through the county’s Partnership for Children, with slots provided at several of the county school facilities. It is free of charge to eligible families in each district.
Vice Chair Jennifer Naylor asked about the timeline for relocating a Pr-K classroom if enrollment numbers required seats to be shifted from one school to another.
“It’s my understanding that if there’s an overflow at one school, there is an option to move a classroom from one school to another school,” Naylor said. “What timeline are we looking at for that, because I would think that would be a very last-minute decision.”
King said those decisions are typically made just before the start of school.
“Typically, we look at that in two weeks from now, kind of that week of Aug. 10 … the week before school starts, we look at where are the places we can move seats,” the superintendent explained to the board. “You can’t just move lots of seats because if you add more kids, you have to change staffing requirements, and there’s a certain maximum for Pre-K.
“Pre-K also is unique because it’s per month, so it’s kids that attend during that month who count toward those seats. So it’s not like the start of school, where everybody’s got to be there the first day.”
King explained that NC Pre-K operates under a separate set of rules and compliance requirements. Addressing concerns about students potentially attending a different school, he said the district’s first priority is to move available seats to schools with waiting lists whenever possible.
“We always try to move seats to where people have applications,” King said. “If there’s a wait list at one school, we can try to put vacant seats at that school. It doesn’t always work out just because of numbers, but that’s our number one thing that we try.”
Board member James Jones asked how attendance affects Pre-K funding.
“My question is, if the students miss over a certain number of days per month, does the Partnership not pay that month for that student?” Jones asked.
King said a student has to be in attendance at least four days per month for the system to get those services reimbursed.
Contract vote
revisited
Later in the meeting, board member Eleanor Bradshaw made a motion to approve the Opportunity Culture Advance Teacher Roles (ATR) contract, which was seconded by board member Glenn Faison.
The contract was previously brought before the board earlier in the month, but its approval failed on a 4-2 vote after Naylor and newly elected board members Michael Elmore, Jones and Krystin McPhail voted against the measure.
Bradshaw was absent from that meeting, prompting Faison to request that the board reconsider the contract once all seven members were present.
Despite the reconsideration, the motion again failed by a 4-3 vote, with Naylor, Elmore, Jones and McPhail voting against approval.
The board then entered a closed door meeting that lasted more than two hours to discuss personnel matters. Specific personnel items can be discussed out of the public’s earshot, according to the N.C. Open Meetings law, but action is required in open session.
After returning to that open session, Dr. Wendy Cabral, executive director for personnel services and federal programs for the county schools, presented amended personnel items for approval. Faison made the motion, Bradshaw seconded it, and the amendments were approved. Naylor cast the lone dissenting vote.
The meeting concluded with the board’s annual election of officers.
Chairman Daryll Warren was unanimously re-elected to another term as chairman, while Naylor was unanimously re-elected to continue serving as vice chairwoman. No other nominations were made for either position.