School district changes 05-06 kindergarten schedule

  • Jennifer Aaby<br>Enterprise writer
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 6:54am

For parents who have children entering kindergarten next year, make a mental note now: Your child will be attending school every weekday.

The main kindergarten model used in the Edmonds School District currently has kindergartners attending school two full days a week and alternating Fridays. The new model allows children to attend kindergarten for half a day Monday through Friday.

“Next year, we are planning to offer a half-day, every-day program,” said Pam Hopkins, assistant superintendent in the Edmonds School District. “We will no longer have alternating-day models.”

Other current programs, including the all-day, every-day kindergarten option, will still be in place.

This change stems from a concern about the performance of young students who don’t attend school on a regular basis.

“We’ve been concerned about the inconsistency with the alternating-day model,” Hopkins said.

With the current model, if a child attends kindergarten on Mondays, Wednesdays and alternating Fridays, every other weekend is four days long. During that time, children can forget lessons learned, but with the half-day, every-day model, teachers can reinforce lessons the next day, Hopkins said.

This change comes after being a top priority for elementary school administrators the past couple of years.

“Elementary principals have very strong support for it,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins noted national research that details how students in every-day programs consistently out-perform kindergarten through fourth-grade students who participated in an alternating-day kindergarten model. Hopkins said students in every-day programs often had stronger independent work habits, social skills and behavior skills.

“Children have more time in academic learning,” Hopkins said, because teachers do not need to repeat lessons as often.

“We believe early intervention and what we do in kindergarten is vitally important,” she said.

This change will require the district to add two additional bus runs per day, one in the late morning to take morning-kindergarten students home, and one in the early afternoon to take afternoon-kindergarten students to school. This increase, along with possible changes to staffing and food services, could cost the district an estimated $200,000.

School board member Mimi Terwilliger commended the change at the Dec. 7 school board meeting.

“This is an opportunity to invest in students at a time when it is most needed,” Terwilliger said.

Details regarding kindergarten registration will be available at the school district Information Fair from 9 a.m. to noon tomorrow, Jan. 8 at Meadowdale High School, 6002 168th St. SW in Lynnwood. Registration for all kindergarten programs begins Jan. 10.

“People can come, find out what school they’ll be attending and meet people from the school,” said John Boerger, community relations specialist with the district.

Every school will be represented at the fair, Boerger said, and all members of the community are invited to learn about the district’s programs.

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