Transitional kindergarten coming to Medical Lake SD

MEDICAL LAKE — Holding its first live, in-person meeting in over a year on April 27, the Medical Lake School Board moved forward on adding a new layer of in-person learning for students when instruction begins in the fall of 2021.

Meeting in the high school auditorium, the board first heard about, and then approved the initiation of what is known as transitional kindergarten at Michael Anderson Elementary on Fairchild Air Force Base.

“It’s an exciting new program for school districts,” Superintendent Tim Ames told the board, adding the concept, “Gives kids the opportunity before they go to kindergarten to really get prepared for kindergarten.”

Ames singled out MAE principal Darlene Starr for the foundational work. “She really got us off the ground just took a leadership role.”

“In essence, we started looking at transitional kindergarten really, last year on March 30,” Kim Headrick, the district’s Director of Teaching and Learning, explained. “You know kind of what happened with that.”

The concept fills a gap that currently exists for kids ages four and five with birthdays that fall outside the traditional kindergarten cutoff dates. The program is designed for students who are not five on Sept. 1 but turn five between then and Dec. 2.

In order to attend traditional kindergarten a child must have turned 5 by Aug. 31 of a calendar year.

Fully funded by the state through grants from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction those enrolled meet the same criteria as older kindergarten students.

“Therefore, it is a full day program,” Headrick said. “They go to lunch, they get on the buses, they do all of those types of things, but it is so it’s kind of a hybrid between in terms of curriculum.”

The district is currently fine-tuning the launch by having personnel examine and prepare curriculum to help further build early learning.

The funding has already allowed purchase of materials such as desks, toys and manipulatives needed to set up at least one, if not more, classrooms.

While the program will launch at Anderson, plans call for expansion to Hallett Elementary in Medical Lake.

“In essence we talked about it for Hallett, but we just don’t have the designated space to do so to offer that program,” Headrick said. “We’re going to work towards building that into the 2022 school year.

There are already 23 applications, with 20 students the maximum for one class. The district has also hired a teacher, who will be assisted by a para-pro. It is possible that there could be two classrooms with 18 students each if there is sufficient demand, but that would require at least 36 successful applicants.

Following the presentation, the board voted unanimously to move forward with the program.

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].