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Evergreen school district adopts everyday kindergarten

Children will be in class all day, 5 days a week, next school year

By Howard Buck
Published: April 17, 2010, 12:00am

Evergreen Public Schools announced Friday it will switch to a full-day, everyday kindergarten schedule for the 2010-11 school year.

The reform also means all Evergreen elementary schools will have early release every Wednesday, in order to give teachers sufficient training time, the district said.

That will affect all students in grades K-through-5.

It’s a dramatic — and expensive — change from the current A/B schedule that puts children in kindergarten either two or three full days, on alternating weeks.

That plan drew fire from several parents and some teachers last fall. They complained that students’ learning and behavior suffered under the on/off routine.

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Evergreen adopted the A/B plan last summer to replace a traditional half-day, everyday schedule (either morning or afternoon sessions), as part of budget reductions forced by a drop in state education funding.

Elimination of midday school bus runs to serve half-day students sliced about $500,000 in costs. It was a key part of transportation changes designed to save up to $1.5 million total.

But in a letter sent home with all elementary-school students Friday, Superintendent John Deeder explained that positives from all-day, everyday kindergarten outweighed other considerations.

Evidence of academic and social success was clear at Orchards Elementary School, where a state grant has funded full-day kindergarten the past two school years, he wrote.

Just as impressive: Progress seen at pilot full-day classes launched over the past two years at Sunset and Crestline elementary schools for a large number of kindergartners.

Normally, about half of Sunset Elementary students enter first grade with “below-level” reading skills, said Tom Nadal, Evergreen director of elementary education. But just six of 100 students who attended all-day kindergarten last year fell in that category, he said. Math testing also showed gains, he said.

“(The) results these students have achieved has convinced us that we must re-prioritize our resources so that all students will enjoy this benefit in the future,” Deeder wrote in the letter.

Evergreen has pumped money and effort into further teacher training, coaching and collaboration, all in hopes of boosting student performance, Nadal said.

“When we looked at full-day, everyday kindergarten, that was something we knew would make a difference,” Nadal said.

“It is a major step that we’re taking. We’re excited,” he said. He knows of no other Southwest Washington school district that offers (free) full-day instruction in kindergarten, he said.

New cost: $3 million

The kindergarten change comes at a significant cost, however.

State dollars pay only for half-day kindergarten; Evergreen must cover the rest. Gov. Chris Gregoire previously pushed for full-day kindergarten statewide, but a slumping economy and huge budget shortfalls scuttled that effort.

Evergreen expects it will take $3.3 million to hire another 42 kindergarten teachers.

It must add portable classrooms at four schools, likely Fisher’s Landing, Harmony, Illahee and Burton. Adjustments at other schools are expected to clear enough space to serve the rest of about 1,800 kindergartners, total.

Budget cuts elsewhere will be needed to make up the new expense, officials said. Student contact time with school librarians will be sliced, and hours for elementary teacher-coaches reduced.

More administrative staff will be culled, and teaching assistants who covered classrooms for certificated teachers for weekly planning time will be eliminated.

The weekly early release dates (compared with about 18 this school year) will help restore teacher planning time lost under the new schedule. Schools would let out students about two hours early, down from three hours currently, Nadal said.

Already, the district must carve $4 million or more from its annual budget ($237 million this year) to offset new reductions in state spending voted this week by the Washington Legislature.

The district will prepare a list of potential budget cuts and post them on its website. It plans to host a series of community forums in May to gather comment, as it did a year ago.

“Our board of directors is committed to this process because of the clear benefit to students,” Deeder wrote.

Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.

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