DS not ready for prek

MKDee

Our preschool offers four years of instruction 2yr, 3yr, 4 yr and prek. The 2yr program is an intro to "school," and most kids do either the 3yr or 4 yr program depending on their birthday. The 3 and 4 year programs are similar, while the prek is truly a kindergarten prep class. DS1 did the 2yr program last year, then 3yr this year, and we were planning to enroll him in prek next year. His teacher stopped DH today at pickup and suggested we do the 4 yr class instead. She said he's just not ready for prek, because he really doesn't have the fine motor skills for coloring and writing or the letter recognition skills that he needs to move on to prek. She said we could reevaluate midyear to see if he has improved enough to switch to prek in January. I just have my doubts about switching him at the halfway point, because he'll miss half of a year of prek, which could be frustrating for him. I'm inclined to just plan that he'll do 4yr preschool next year and prek when he's 5. I hadn't planned on red shirting him for kindy, because I assumed he really had another year to get some of these skills down, but now I'm having my doubts. So I need some other perspectives. Do you think it would be a big deal to switch him to the prek class halfway through the year? Or should I just assume he has two more years before kindy unless he has a huge developmental jump in the next six months? Obviously, there's no decision to be made right now. I'm just looking for different perspectives on this.