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Thank you!

A big THANK YOU to all Smart Start of Mecklenburg County staff, MECK Pre-K Teachers, community partners, Meck Dental, CDSA, Mecklenburg County immunizations team, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Girl Scouts, Clear Voice Translations, Atrium Health and PNC Bank for being present at our Brigance screening events for the upcoming school year.

Brigance screenings evaluate key predictors of school success across several developmental domains. Teachers use observation, interviews, and child performance to pinpoint understanding in the domains tied to early development and school or kindergarten readiness. Read more on the importance of Brigance screenings here.

Is your child not old enough for pre-K?

You can sign up to be notified when registration opens for your child's school year. Visit our Future MECK Pre-K Student Page to register.

Apply for MECK Pre-K Today!

If you have a child that's turning 4 years old by August 31st, you can still apply for MECK Pre-K! MECK Pre-K is high quality pre-k education open to all four year old children in Mecklenburg County at no cost to families! Head on over to our enrollment page to apply!

Safe Kids Charlotte Mecklenburg, Atrium Health and MECK Pre-k partnered to Paint the Playground!!

Paint was used on sidewalks and asphalt to create semi-permanent play spaces for children. (lasting 5-8 years). 

What was the overall goal?

• To create more active play spaces.
• To create areas where kids can be broken into smaller groups for activities.
• Lessen the amount of free chasing and sitting on playground equipment that results in falls and injuries.
• Assist with social emotional, academic or large motor skill development with or without teacher guidance.

We completed spaces at:

• Kids Are Fun
• The Learning Tree
• Little Sprouts
• Berean Junior Academy

Make sure to check these out when you visit our schools!

MECK Pre-K in the Community

As always, we were very active in the community this summer. Check out some pictures below of all the fun events we participated in over these hot summer days.

We participated in Saturdays on Stitt at the Ella B. Scarborough Resource Center. The Ella B. Scarborough is a great place to find many services in one place! Medicaid, food, child support services and many others.

Smart Start of Mecklenburg County programs like MECK Pre-K, Dolly Parton Imagination Library and Ready4K participated in the English Learner Family Academic Symposium hosted by Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools.

We held five different Brigance screening and parent orientation events where we got to partner with community organizations like Meck Dental to provide resources for our families before the school year begins.

Get to know the MECK Pre-K Team

We have a new page on our website where you can find out who is a part of our team. You will see our staff out and about at all our centers so this a good way to familiarize yourself with them. You can check out our MECK Pre-K staff page here.

Help Spread the Word

About MECK Pre-K!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn and share our posts! You can find even more ways to talk about MECK Pre-K on our Partner Toolkit Page.

Help Spread the Word About MECK Pre-K! 

If you're part of an organization whose employes, customers, or clients would benefit from high-quality pre-K, please help us spread the word by using our partner toolkit! This convenient toolkit has downloadable posters, graphics, screen savers, social media content, bookmarks, videos, and more – even coloring pages for kids! Visit https://meckprek.org/partner-toolkit/  

Novant Health Community Health Services

Join Novant Health Community Health Services at the Northern Regional Recreation Center for fun activities, facepainting, inflatables and school materials for kids, health education and screenings for adult friends and family. Make sure to call Care Connections at 844-644-3578 (NHHELPU) to schedule an appointment.

Volunteer for us!

We are so grateful to all of our community volunteers who help Smart Start ensure that all Mecklenburg County kids “turn five, ready to thrive”. Our volunteers have been busy this summer packing snack bags, assisting with events, and delivering books. If you’re interested in volunteering with Smart Start, head over to our volunteer portal, or contact Jo Boyd at JBoyd@SmartStartofMeck.org

Dolly Parton Imagination Library Bilingual Program

We are very excited to announce that North Carolina is now included in Dolly Parton Imagination Library’s fully bilingual program! This means that families are now able to sign up for a program that ONLY offers bilingual (Spanish and English) books to families each month. If you are already registered, you can email us at dpil@smartstartofmeck.org to change over to the bilingual program and if you are currently registered, please visit our website here.