Declining federal funds, late notice extinguish Ms. Paula’s preschool ‘magic’

At the head of a classroom in Lander, Paula Vincelette held up a small plastic pig and asked a dozen preschoolers to help the pig build a house with bricks. The students-turned-builders intently mimed the construction of small imaginary homes on the carpet in front of them. 

As Vincelette continued with the story of the “Three Little Pigs,” she paused often with prompts and questions. On cue, her rapt pupils enthusiastically repeated the famous tagline: “Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin!!” 

It may have looked like a simple storytime, but Vincelette incorporated elements meant to prepare these children for the kindergarten classroom next year. Like constructing a house brick by brick, they were honing their listening skills and building vocabulary; learning how to raise their hands and speak in turn. Later, when she paired them up to build their own little story sets using actual props, they worked on sharing, body awareness and communication. 

As the early childhood education liaison for Fremont County School District 1, Vincelette has done this kind of work for five years. Along with direct instruction, she has also worked with child care providers and parents in her overarching goal to build better early childhood education foundations for district children. 

Her position, however, is coming to an end. The school district discovered late this spring that its 2025-26 federal Title I funds — which supplement state and local funding for low-achieving children — would be cut by roughly $86,000. Administrators made what they described as an extremely difficult choice to terminate the position.

Although the end of the early childhood education job comes amid a torrent of federal cuts fueled by President Donald Trump’s DOGE efforts, this one is unrelated. Title I funds are calculated based on demographics, specifically the number of children living in poverty. The number of Fremont County children living in poverty declined from 227 in the last cycle to 182 in this one, according to the Wyoming Department of Education. 

A similar demographic shift is occurring across much of the state. But what can on its face be interpreted as a positive trend had the downstream effect of reducing funding in most of Wyoming’s school districts. Notice from the federal government of decreases was months late, leaving many administrators scrambling after budgets were set. And, in places like Fremont County, it means an end to what many parents and supporters call a life-changing educational opportunity. 

“Our family definitely benefited from Paula’s programs,” said Lander mom Amelia Decker. Decker started attending Vincelette’s free programs for families when her older son was a baby, received individual help when he was in preschool and enrolled him in the kindergarten transition session last summer. 

“Her advice, the space she offered for myself and other parents, and the learning opportunities about how to interact with my children shaped me as a mother and opened up so many connections for our family,” Decker said. 

In an era when educational experts say the role of early childhood education is crucial, many in Fremont County hope the district will be able to reinstate Vincelette’s position in the future. 

Census numbers and federal funds

The number of Wyoming children ages 5-17 living in poverty dropped between the 2022 and 2023 U.S. Census, the basis for calculating ‘25-26 Title I allocations. The number fell by nearly 700 children, from 11,420 to 10,731, according to WDE calculations. The state’s total population of children ages 5-17, meanwhile, remained relatively stable, barely budging from 98,774 to 98,764. But statewide public school enrollment has been falling for at least five years, a trend educators attribute to factors like more parents deciding to homeschool their children. 

The poverty-related shift resulted in a statewide drop of a little over $1 million for the federal Title I funds compared to the ‘24-25 school year, state figures indicate. 

Though it’s hard to say what specific mix of factors contributed to the trend in Wyoming, tax credits and stimulus payments in conjunction with relief programs were credited with the largest nationwide one-year drop in childhood poverty in 2021. 

Funding impacts for the incoming school year vary between districts. A decrease of 160 students in Natrona County District 1, for example, created a funding drop of roughly $63,000, and in Albany County School District 1, a decrease of 37 children living in poverty resulted in a loss of roughly $6,000. 

But in Teton County School District 1, the number of children in poverty increased from 134 to 153, which resulted in a funding bump of $307,000. The majority, however, will receive less Title I money. 

Fremont County School District’s Title I Coordinator Deidre Meyer’s job every year is “to look at our funding and see where this money is going to best serve our students under Title I,” she said.  

Under the federal regulations, Meyer noted, “the majority of the Title I funding for preschool is supposed to be spent on Head Start and [Community Development Services].”

Up until late May, she was operating under the assumption that the funding level was stable. But late that month, she received an email from the Wyoming Department of Education with the updated federal allocations. Those updates normally arrive by February. That’s when Meyer realized she would have significantly less to work with, she said. 

She attempted to move funds around, she said, but it wasn’t enough. Ultimately, she cut the early childhood liaison position because it was the option that affected the smallest number of students while still fulfilling the Title I grant requirements, she said. 

“It was very hard,” Meyer said. “It was a tough one.”

The timing only made it harder, FCSD1 Superintendent Mike Harris said. By the time the May 21 notification arrived, “our staffing decisions are pretty much done.” 

The tardiness, he said, “put a lot of districts in a tough spot. For those that are getting reduced funding now, they’re looking at their proposals and their projections, and they’re having to revise a lot.” 

It is unclear why the projections were so late this year, but the federal Department of Education has been in flux since the Trump administration laid off an estimated 1,400 employees this spring. That issue is tied up in litigation. 

A passion for early education 

It’s never a pleasant experience to learn you will no longer have a job, Vincelette said. Despite that, she had no ill words about the district and said she understood the difficult choice. 

Vincelette grew up in Rock Springs and pursued elementary education at the University of Wyoming. There, she studied under renowned UW professor Nikki Baldwin. 

“The way she taught was making you really think outside the box and push the quote-unquote standard of what we think early childhood should be,” Vincelette said. “I really connected with that.”

She also found inspiration in the deliberate and thoughtful curriculum at Laramie’s Early Care and Education Center, where her own two kids attended. 

Vincelette moved to Lander nine years ago to work as a preschool teacher for the school district. She transitioned to the early childhood education liaison five years ago, initially as part-time. 

The position aimed to support the early childhood education landscape in a broader sense. To do that, Vincelette worked with local preschools and kindergarten classrooms to model and teach weekly lessons based on needs. She offered a free, weekly “Little Explorers” program for families with children under 5 to encourage learning and play. She advocated developmentally appropriate learning, worked with the family consumer science class at the high school and led the summer “Lights On” program for children about to enter kindergarten.

Vincelette is an adherent of evidence-based models, and a big part of her approach is learning through play. 

If educators present lessons “in a playful manner, students are going to remember that,” she said. Connecting it to joy and fun makes it more effective for small children, she said. 

She learns a lot from young children, she added, who have a purity, rawness and presence of mind she finds refreshing. 

It appears she has taken a page from that presence of mind in this situation. Instead of panicking about finding a new job, Vincelette said in the Lander classroom during a break in the summer pre-kindergarten program, she spent the final weeks of her job absorbed in the work.

‘Kid magic’

Back in the classroom, Vincelette’s way with kids was evident. Whether asking them to touch their ears while listening, telling the story with a toy wolf or asking them to place hands on top of their heads to show they were finished, she commanded their complete attention.  

Following story time, the children moved through play stations around the room — painting, handling fragile water beads, building with magnetic blocks, practicing handwriting with a magnetic “pen” among them. The stations were designed to help build things like motor skills, body awareness or language foundations, Vincelette said. 

“Miss Paula has ‘kid magic,’” a local kindergarten teacher wrote in a testimonial after news broke that the position had been terminated. Vincelette collected a number of these in an effort to provide proof of how impactful the work has been. She hopes funding will be available in the future to support the reinstatement of something similar. 

Supporters hope so too. In the pages of testimonials, kindergarten teachers, preschool directors, parents and mentees praised her singular talent with small children during an era when evidence of the importance of early childhood education on long-term outcomes of success is mounting.

They credited Vincelette with quelling behavioral issues and igniting imagination, equipping parents with tools to encourage learning-based play at home, transforming teachers’ approach to instruction and easing transition into the classroom for all kids, including those who didn’t attend daycare or preschool.  

“Her absence will be profoundly felt by students, teachers, and families alike,” another teacher wrote. 

Decker, the Lander mom, recently watched her son finish kindergarten. While he has his ups and downs, she said, “he is thriving academically and as a person. I credit so much of that to Ms. Paula.”