Many Of Nantucket's Incoming Kindergarteners Never Attended Preschool. Summer Boost Program Helps Prepare Them

As summer begins to wind down, a group of children on Nantucket prepares for the important transition of entering kindergarten. Most of these children didn’t attend preschool but have instead spent the last five weeks immersed in the Nantucket Community School’s Summer Boost Program.

This initiative, created to bridge the gap for children and their families before beginning kindergarten, ensures students are equipped with the skills necessary to thrive in the classroom environment – including letter and number recognition, fine and gross motor skills, and verbal expression.

The program is over 15 years old and originally began when teachers on the island recognized the need for a preparatory program dedicated to helping children transition smoothly to kindergarten. The program has evolved over the years to now operate under the Nantucket Community School, holding sessions in sync with the Nantucket Public School’s summer school schedule for five weeks, including four days a week for three hours a day.

Pauline Cronin, the early childhood program coordinator at the Nantucket Community School explained that this summer alone, the 28 students enrolled in the Summer Boost Program make up 25 percent of the incoming kindergarten class. The dedicated team behind the Summer Boost program includes Cronin, experienced teachers Susan Richards and Kerrie Willis leading the classrooms, who are then supported by their teaching assistants Melanie Ramirez, Keyra Garcia, Diana Alamarante, and Zulma Osegueda.

“[We focus on] their routines, the expectations of the classroom, and basic academics, but our bigger focus is on the social, emotional learning piece,” explains Cronin. “Learning to be a good classmate, following the expectations, things as simple as walking in a line and sitting in a circle,” she elaborates.

Further, the majority of the students enrolled in the program are English language learners, reflecting the island’s growing diversity. To ensure that each child receives lessons and communication that best suits them, many of the Summer Boost’s staff, including recent high school graduates, are bilingual.

"It's a complete mixture," Cronin said. "Some who are English language learners are pretty fluent in English, others help each other, and some have none at all across the board."

To further help prepare the students for kindergarten, a typical day in the program includes circle time, which includes movement, stories, and songs. The children then engage in a project – often focusing on sensory-rich experiences – before moving on to free play and outdoor activities, which helps facilitate social-emotional learning.

“A lot of these children haven't had much sensory experience, so we're going to get them messy and we're going to get them dirty,” adds Cronin. “They're learning best that way.”

The program, supported by state and local grants, aims to be attainable for all families by remaining very low-cost. Local organizations including the Harvey Foundation donate backpacks with school supplies through Books to Boost, and the Nantucket Education Trust, the Community Foundation for Nantucket, and the Siasconset Union Chapel all help fund the program.

For Cronin, the impact of Summer Boost is evident in the children's progress, which has improved greatly over the last five weeks. Some of the biggest improvements have been seen in things like following the structure of the day, knowing their expectations, managing their bodies, and being kind to their friends.

"Their biggest boost is in social-emotional skills,” Cronin noted. “The academics will all fall into place, but we truly believe that if they have the social-emotional piece, the academics will come after."

Cronin is passionate about the program’s long-term benefits, not only for the children but also for their families. The Ready Set School program, a parent-child initiative during the school year, is also an integral part of this effort.

"We're really trying to engage parents right from the beginning so that they can be advocates for their children when they go to school," Cronin elaborated.

As the program wraps up its five-week session, the upcoming kindergartners are prepared for the school year, thanks to the collaborative effort of the Summer Boost program’s staff, families, and community organizations that have all come together to support early childhood education on the island.

"It's such a great program... It's so rewarding to see how far the kids come,” Cronin continues. “It really benefits everybody. Kindergarten teachers will tell you, preschool teachers will tell you that they see the benefit of it, and they're big advocates for it as well.”