Winning the school readiness battle begins way before kindergarten.

At T.R. Jackson Prek Center in Milton, it goes on every day.

And sometimes it is won $250 at a time.

Dawn Alt is the director of prek programs for Santa Rosa Schools. She is the former principal of Oriole Beach Elementary School, a high-poverty school in south Santa Rosa County.

There are 280 students at T.R. Jackson. In the annual family survey the staff does, it turned out that 54 of those parents have not completed high school.

That led Alt and her staff to ask Santa Rosa Adult School to set up a GED class at TR Jackson. There was some question at first, because there is a GED class at the Berryhill Administrative Complex office building a half-mile away. But the T.R. Jackson staff know that their parents won’t go that extra half-mile, because of barriers from psychological to practical.

“I said it has to be here,” Alt says.

Getting the class set up at TR Jackson, the Susan Street complex where her parents are already used to coming, was just step one.

To enroll in a GED class there is a $20 fee for a placement test to gauge your skills and $30 a semester fee for the course.

“So now you’re asking these families to come up with $50 up front,” she said.

Some couldn’t afford it, so the staff started a scholarship fund. No full scholarships were given — everyone had to pay something toward the fee — but they covered tuition for the eight parents who enrolled the first semester.

“If we can get eight, I’m OK with that,” Alt says. "Because to me education is life-changing."

Head Start families must compete and stick to a plan that includes family goals and academic goals for the child. Including having mom or dad complete her or his GED as a family goal, allows the two parent advocates on staff at TR Jackson to do reminder calls and visits that include the nudge to parents to keep with their own studies.

When second semester rolled around, only two parents returned.

Out went the calls and in came the results — the $30 course fee was too much for some families to make.

The scholarship fund was revived and the class was back in business.

Sharrell Ethridge, education and assessment specialist at T.R. Jackson, says aside from the obvious educational benefits of finishing high school, the T.R. Jackson parents are learning more.

“They learn to be able to ask, to advocate for their child. And themselves,” she says.

Alt’s goal for next year is to be able to offer child care to her GED-seeking parents during class time.

“I know I can get eight more if we had child care.”

The goal, Alt says, is to change the lives of her students — and their families through education.

"We want to help these people," Alt says. "Once they get this GED, well, then, we're going to say, well, now what's your goal? Then, we're going to keep on going with them. This has just been, what I would think, a huge success story. We want to keep this going."