Schools prepare to retool early childhood programs

Public school districts throughout Montana are preparing to retool their approaches to early childhood education this spring, as state education officials move closer to implementing a new law aimed at bolstering reading proficiency among the state’s youngest students. For Bozeman Public Schools, the changes will bring an end to the district’s nine-year-old Running Start program, which offered early kindergarten instruction for children under age 5 at two Bozeman elementary schools. According to Superintendent Casey Bertram, the district is now developing the framework for new programming