State Sen. David Argall, R-29, pulled up a chair and began reading “Thankful for Thanksgiving” to the pre-kindergarten students at the Lehigh Valley Children’s Center in Coaldale.

The students hung on Argall’s every word as he read the prose – sentences that gave thanks for pets, sunshine and family.

And it was a day of thanks all around, as state, local and Panther Valley School District officials gathered to celebrate the recent opening of two expanded pre-kindergarten classrooms inside the Coaldale Complex.

“I am very excited that Sen. Argall is visiting our program today to mark the passage of the 2022-23 state budget that includes a $79 million increase for more of Pennsylvania’s 3- and 4-year olds to attend Pre-K Counts and Head Start,” Charles Dinofrio, chief executive officer and president of Lehigh Valley Children Centers, said during Wednesday’s event.

The increase is important because about 67% of eligible children in Schuylkill County do not yet have access to publicly funded pre-kindergarten programs, he said.

“This equates to more than 6,600 income eligible 3- and 4-year olds still lacking access to these services every year in our county. Across Pennsylvania more than 100,000 eligible 3- and 4-year olds are waiting,” Dinofrio said.

The Pre-K Counts expansion classrooms in Coaldale were created by the infusion of an additional $60 million in funding for the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts Program and $19 million for the Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program.

The Coaldale site opened on Aug. 29 and like other Pre-K Counts programs, follows a school-year calendar with a 5-hour day.

Bruce Clash, state director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, said that access to high quality pre-kindergarten plays an important role in a child’s life.

He cited a recent study that determined children enrolled in the program outperformed their kindergarten peers in language and math.

Not only does it help with their education, but it helps them to become more productive and law abiding citizens, he said.

“Every child deserves a strong foundation on which to grow and develop,” Clash said.

Argall, who supported the funding, said he could attest to the program’s benefits because his children attended a pre-K program sponsored by the former Tamaqua YMCA years ago.

“I was astonished by how well they were prepared for kindergarten,” he said.

Both his children, he said, went on to higher education and have successful careers.

“They took what they learned at pre-K to public schools and kept working on that platform,” Argall said.

Pre-K students helped with the ribbon cutting, and afterward, attendees toured the two classrooms.

Panther Valley Superintendent David McAndrew Jr. said the district was hoping to add a pre-K program for a number of years.

“The Lehigh Valley Children’s Center was a perfect fit,” he said.

The center operates 35 Pre-K Counts classrooms in Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill counties.

For more information, visit www.LVCConline.org.