Board to hear plan to aid kindergartners

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, March 14, 2000

Kindergarten students who may encounter problems while attempting to make the switch to first grade will be the focus of a plan for a district transitioning program at Wednesday’s Austin School Board meeting.

Tuesday, March 14, 2000

Kindergarten students who may encounter problems while attempting to make the switch to first grade will be the focus of a plan for a district transitioning program at Wednesday’s Austin School Board meeting.

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Sheri Allen and Candace Raskin, principals of Neveln and Banfield schools respectively, will present the pilot program to the board at its meeting at 5 p.m. at Ellis Middle School. The aim is to implement it by August’s school start date. The proposed program would merge the Title I preschool program with the Community School readiness program, creating one preschool setting. After attending kindergarten, students prepared for first grade would move on, while those who are not could attend the transition step.

"Basically it will be running a dual program," Raskin said. "We would combine two preschool programs into one. After kindergarten, students could then move on to first grade or attend the transitioning program."

Neveln and Banfield elementaries would establish the classrooms for the school year, which would eliminate extended-day kindergarten classes. Currently, there’s a half-day kindergarten program in the district, with a full day available for those students who can benefit from an entire day. If approved, students at Sumner Elementary would be able to attend the program at Neveln, while students at Southgate Elementary could attend Banfield’s program.

In addition, the recommendation addresses funding, asking that $30,000 of current Title I allocations be diverted to the school readiness program, with possible funding coming from the state for full-day funding.

For the first half of the school year, the program’s curriculum would model extended-day kindergarten with an emphasis on receptive language and visual tracking, both important for reading ability. The next half would be preparing students for first grade. After the transition class ends, students ready for grade one can move on, or if students excel, Raskin said students could move on to second grade if the step is deemed appropriate.

Raskin said the proposal would allow for more one-on-one contact with students through a smaller class size and work with speech, language and learning disabilities.

"Sometimes kids just need more time," Raskin said. "To give them belief and time, to give them one more year without failure is a good step."

After its presentation to the school board, the next step in the program’s timeline is to meet with teachers and identify students to be screened for the transition program. The program would be for a full day with class size limited to 12 to 15 students.

The board also will consider the approval of a contract for John Wilcox, who has been named the interim general manager of KSMQ-TV effective March 3 and to continue through the end of June. Wilcox has served as the director of engineering and operations at the public television station since March 1, 1986. The district hopes to have a new general manager in place by July 1.