16 children are going to be able to participate in the Horizon School Division's pre-kindergarten programming now that they have transferred services to Humboldt Public School.

Director of Education Kevin Garinger talks about bringing the program here from Punnichy.

"The Ministry of Education enabled us to move that program out of one of our other communities where the need wasn't as great. There is still another program in that community so we've been able to find a place where the need exists and we're able to manage that effectively by moving it to Humboldt."

This pre-k program will run in the afternoon, it focuses on vulnerable children and encourages early contact between the HSD and parents with children in the system.

Garinger says the need for a second program here in Humboldt is there and has been for a while.

"I believe that the need has always been here looking at the numbers, it's just a matter of trying to accomplish meeting the needs of our children across HSD is a challenge certainly especially when we only have seven funded programs in pre-k."

Other stakeholders supporting the program are the Ministry of Social Services, Saskatoon Public Health, Humboldt Regional Newcomers Centre and the HPS Child Care Center.

The first day of the program will be on January 18th.

You can hear more from Garinger below in his interview with Bolt FM's Angie Dukart.