Parents urge switch back to half-day kindergarten

Published 9:00 pm Friday, March 25, 2005

MUKILTEO – A change in the kindergarten schedule in the Mukilteo School District has some parents yearning for a return to the past.

In a budget-driven move, the Mukilteo School Board last year voted to move from half-day, daily kindergarten to full-day, alternating-day sessions. It expects to save $130,000 in transportation costs from fewer midday bus runs.

Now, some parents are hoping the district will reconsider and return to the half-day, every-day schedule.

“We just wonder if it’s absolutely necessary” to change, said Julie Larsen, whose two boys will enter kindergarten in 2006 and 2007.

The Mukilteo PTSA Council will host a public forum to discuss the district’s kindergarten schedule at 7 p.m. Monday at Discovery Elementary School, 11700 Meridian Ave. S., Everett.

Terry Brandon, the district’s executive director of elementary education, said it’s too late to make any changes for next year and too early to draw any conclusions about this year. The district is open to consider all options after that, he said.

“When we start talking about it next year, we will have a full year of data to consider,” Brandon said.

Brandon has already received feedback from parents with questions and concerns about how the kindergarten program will be evaluated, if the budget will now allow the district to switch back and what impact the schedule may have on students academic and social progress.

Some parents are also pointing to their neighbors to the south. The Edmonds School District is switching back to half-day, every-day kindergarten options at all schools next fall.

All schools will also have an option for full-day, every-day kindergarten with tuition for those who can pay and scholarships for some students who can’t. Mukilteo has some similar tuition-based options, but has more classroom space issues than Edmonds.

Two schools in the Edmonds district will have a full-day, three-day-a-week option with classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Pam Hopkins, an assistant superintendent for the Edmonds district, said the switch back had been a priority for administrators for several years.

It will cost about $200,000 more than the alternating, full-day schedule, but administrators like the scheduling consistency for students.

Some students who would go Mondays, Wednesdays and alternating Fridays would be out of school close to a week when there was a teacher training or planning day on a Friday and a holiday on a Monday, she said.

The district also feels the daily structure will help special needs students in kindergarten, Hopkins said.

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.