The Full Scoop on Full-Day K

The town's six elementary school principals presented the details of the new full-day kindergarten program Monday night to an audience of more than 100 parents.

This meeting was not in the original meeting schedule posted on the district website but was announced in a letter mailed earlier this month to parents of incoming kindergartners.

Though the letter outlined the structure of the full day and other aspects of the kindergarten program, including the first five-week early dismissal and the "opt-out" extended day program, Monday night's meeting was a chance for the principals to expand on the letter and take questions from parents.

Assistant Superintendent Pat Michael introduced the elementary school principals, who then proceeded to explain each part of the new curriculum.

Scotland Elementary School principal Mark Solomon introduced the vision of the program, tagged as the "start of an exciting learning journey" for students.

"It may seem like it is impossible for [the students] to sustain for a full day, but that is not the case," he said.

"Your children are more than ready for full-day kindergarten," Solomon continued. "Give it an open mind. This is really the best possible program for your child."

The principals took turns expanding on the outline of the new kindergarten schedule, beginning with the Responsive Classroom (morning meeting), where the students and the teacher will have the opportunity to greet each other and learn what they will be doing during the day while practicing respect, cooperation and responsibility.

Veterans Park principal Julie Droller walked the audience through the 110-minute block of "balanced literacy," which will include reading aloud, shared reading, literacy centers and reader's and writer's workshops. By the end of the year, the students will be able to practice reading or writing for up to 20 minutes independently.

The program creates "lifelong readers and writers," Droller said, as literacy extends into other areas such as science, social studies and math, where students are learning the vocabulary of those subjects.

The principals continually reassured parents that the program was going to be a positive experience for the children.

Most voiced parent concerns were related to the opt-out extended day program. The principals assured parents that, if they select the extended day opt-out option, parents can change their minds at any point and move their children into the full-day program.

Some new details that the principals shared with the parents:

• Students will have two snack periods per day.
• Students will have 30 minutes of recess and then have lunch in the cafeteria. Depending on scheduling and the school, kindergartners may or may not be eating with another grade.
• Students will have one special per day: music, art, physical education and two library/media sessions, one of which will most likely be a computer lab period.
• Most likely, specials will be scheduled in the afternoon, after the opt-out students have left.
• The opt-out extended day program remains an "all or nothing" decision; if parents choose this option, they must pick up their child every day at the designated time, 1:45 if the school is on the early schedule or 2:20 if the school is on the late schedule.This decision, rather than having a two-day-a-week option for extended day, was chosen to maintain instructional continuity.

Monday's full presentation will be posted on the district's website. For more information, visit the district's news link.

(Editor's note: The author has a child entering kindergarten in the fall.)