EAST DUBUQUE, Ill. -- She stood before the school board on the verge of tears.

"I used to be proud of being from East Dubuque," said Sara Feyen, tears in her eyes. "But I'm not anymore."

Feyen was one of the four parents and educators who spoke about preschool and kindergarten issues at the East Dubuque School Board meeting Tuesday night at the school library.

"We just feel like our concerns haven't been listened to by the majority of you," Feyen, who has a son in kindergarten, told the board.

Their concerns revolve around the elimination of a preschool section this school year -- which will not be restored -- and the change in a kindergarten program.

In July, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced a reduction in early-childhood education funding by 33 percent. A week later, Quinn reinstated the funding to 90 percent of 2008 levels.

Superintendent Katherine Kelly, who serves as the administrative agent for the funds in Jo Daviess County, reacted by cutting a preschool section from the Family T.I.E.S. program, meaning about 20 children would not be in preschool.

The shortfall of about $75,000 was divided this school year among the 11 preschool sections in Jo Daviess County and the Lena-Winslow School District.

Dina Nieland is a teacher who had one of her two preschool sections cut and now works as a kindergarten reading specialist in the morning and a preschool teacher in the afternoon.

The nearly 20 people gathered at the library wanted the board to decide on reinstating the preschool section.

"It needs to come to closure," Nieland said.

The board went into closed session to discuss the preschool section and the kindergarten reading program. Many who called for closure left before the board came out of the closed meeting to announce the preschool section will not be reinstated and the kindergarten program will continue.