MUKILTEO — Horizon Elementary School will have to drop full-day kindergarten next fall, not for lack of money, but for lack of space.
That’s one of the changes the Mukilteo School District will make because of a shortage of classrooms in its elementary schools.
The district, which had two bond measures fail last year, won’t ask for a bond to build more schools this year because of the sputtering economy.
All-day kindergarten is new this year at the school in south Everett and has been successful on many levels.
“I’m in grief about this,” Horizon Principal Leslie Clauson said. “I really am.”
Roughly half of Horizon students are from immigrant families and are learning English as their second language. The extra class time has sped up their grasp of their new language.
“What we’ve seen this year is when you walk into the room they are just so much more communicative,” Clauson said.
Come fall, Horizon grudgingly will return to half-day kindergarten.
There won’t be enough room for six or seven all-day kindergarten classes, which is forcing the Mukilteo School District to turn down state funding that provides full-day kindergarten to schools with similar demographics to Horizon. Nearly 80 percent of Horizon students qualify for a free or discounted lunch based on their family income.
The classroom space is needed for other grades.
What’s happening at Horizon is symptomatic of a larger overcrowding issue confronting elementary schools in the Mukilteo School District.
Challenger Elementary School also could have qualified for state funding for all-day kindergarten this year but didn’t have the space.
Next fall, portable classrooms will be added at Endeavour Elementary School, kindergarten classes at Discovery Elementary will be shifted to Olivia Park Elementary, and kindergarten students at Odyssey Elementary will be shuttled to Serene Lake Elementary. A tuition-based all-day kindergarten program at Picnic Point Elementary School will be dropped next fall because of a lack of space.
“The shortage of classroom space is becoming a larger issue with each passing year,” said Mukilteo Superintendent Marci Larsen. “With continuing enrollment growth, many of our elementary schools simply don’t have enough classrooms available to accommodate the growing number of students.”
With more than 700 students, Horizon is nearly as large as some of the district’s middle schools.
Even some of the smaller schools, such as Endeavour, are feeling the pinch.
Nearly 100 students from other Mukilteo schools have transferred to Endeavour. The students attended schools that qualify for federal funding based on high poverty rates. The federal No Child Left Behind law allows them to transfer if their home school doesn’t post high enough test results.
The space issue won’t be solved anytime soon. Last year, the district placed a bond measure on the ballot twice to raise money for construction. The measures received a 55.7 percent yes vote in February and 58.1 percent in May, but it failed because a 60 percent supermajority was required for passage.
Given the economy, the measure won’t be put on the ballot this year.
The Mukilteo School Board will weigh options this year. They include trying another bond proposal in 2010, eliminating all-day kindergarten to free up space for other programs, developing more sister-school relationships to move students between campuses and placing small educational magnet programs in schools that have extra space.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.
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