I am Denise Skalsky, a first grade teacher in East Lansing. I teach 22 students at
Pinecrest Elementary. I strongly believe that full day kindergarten should be retained. I
am concerned that you think other districts 'get by ’ with half -day kindergarten, however
other districts provide more instructional support to their youngest learners, and that
costs them money. This is evident in class size, building space, and also paraprofessionals
and reading teacher support. I believe that IF we discontinue our FDK program, we have
to be ready to provide additional instructional support to our youngest learners in literacy
and math. Even now, with our Full Day Kindergarten, I feel a need for additional
instructional support in literacy and math to be able to meet the needs of all of our
learners and to be able to BEGIN to address any achievement gap. I have made
telephone calls to other elementary buildings in our surrounding area and I have accrued
some data from them that I believe demonstrates what they 'offer* to their youngest
learners. One issue is class size and the other instructional support. Thank-you for all
you do for our learners. I appreciate your dedication and support.
Questions asked:
1. Maximum class size?
2. Literacy support/district money/other?
3. How does literacy support work?
4. Parapro's?
Districts called:
Okemos
Dewitt
Grand Ledge
Haslett
Haslett and Dewitt house their early learning programs in the following
ways:
Haslett: Wilkshire houses all of the district pre-k, kindergarten and first
grades.
Dewitt: One building houses all kindergartens.
One building houses all of the first grades.
Okemos has a 'Begin-dergarten' program and also offers a Montessori
program, k - 5.
Okemos: (Called two separate elementary schools)
Hiawatha (Hiawatha has 350 students)
1. Maximum class size:
Kindergarten and First Grade = 18, maximum = 20... If they get 21 children, then they add a para-
professional:
If they get 26 children, then they add another para-professional
2. Full Time reading consultant (full time based on # of students... if this is LOW, then
3 - 4 days per week... but with 350, they have full time consultant = FIVE days per
week) .
Wardcliffe (270 children)
1. Class size stipulations, same as Hiawatha
2. Reading Consultant is shared because numbers are low... not enough students for full time
Wardcliffe has title 1 support (not Full time)
Wardcliffe has title 1 aides... Each teacher gets 6- 9 hours every week... title one
support aides monitor centers during literacy instruction, k - 1
Title 1 provides math support at Wardcliffe
Grand Ledge
Delta Center (490 children... had 550 last year)
1. class size:
DK - Developmental Kindergarten - 18 with full-time paraprofessional
K - 25 with Full Time Paraprofessional
First Grade - 24 with four hours of Paraprofessional every day... If class size gets higher than
27, another paraprofessional is added
2. Title One - Full time teacher: This person services Reading, Math, Social Studies, and
any Student Improvement goal area.
Delta Center also has a full time reading 'specialist' who is 'district' paid... This person is usually
in the classroom with teachers during literacy instruction.
DeWltt: 250 kindergartners
Kindergarten:
1. Presently 24 and 25 in classroom. Each kindergarten has full time instructional
assistant.
2. No Title 1 $
First Grade:
1. Optimal number of students is 26 by contract.
2. 2 Title 1 teachers in the first grade building do READING RECOVERY. In the p.m.,
they do math, social studies, etc... so... 16 first graders get reading recovery support. (Two title
1 teachers for second grades, too.) No paraprofessional help, just title teachers.
Haslett
Wilkshire (404 children)
1. Grant money used to help keep numbers low. Now grant money ran out.
Kindergarten: 20 - 22 (presently)
First Grade: 22-23 (presently)
Wilkshire houses :
3 - Developmental Kindergartens
9 - Kindergartens
7 - First Grades
Two literacy leaders in Wilkshire School. These are full time teachers.
Wilkshire does have title 1 services. Kindergarten gets 30-40 minutes per teacher per day.
First Grade gets Literacy Leader teacher 50 minutes every day. (They gave up their reading
recovery.)
East Lansing:
My own First Grade Classroom at Pinecrest Elementary: I have 22 first graders.
I have a paraprofessional to help manage two autistic students in my classroom.
My instructional 'support' for literacy comes from a district paid
reading teacher who delivers 30 minutes of instruction, two times per
week. (Six students receive reading support, three at a time.)
WHAT DO MARBLE TEACHERS SAY?
First grade:
I cannot really tell the difference between ail day K students and half day K ones.
I notice more whether or not they've had preschool experience mostly in terms of
socialization with other kids, problem solving, etc.
The academics are so varying with development and ability at this young age, in my opinion.
• All day kindergarten does not seem to help with achievement.
• Usually cannot tell who has had full versus half-day K.
• Feels that child care may be driving full day K.
• There are more five year olds in first grade than in previous years.
• Students identified for Title 1 are all turning six.
• The high achieving readers are all seven
• The others are at Preprimer 1 or 2.
• Not all children in K should be pushed to read.
• Bottom line: Half day kindergarten is fine and would save a lot of money.
Kindergarten:
Curriculum is huge for kindergarten; wonders what happened to developmentally appropriate.
Feels that the day is long for young children; hence, morning is more productive.
Feels that all day provides one locale for the children, rather than two to three where
students have to adjust to different teachers, different rules, expectations, etc.
Full-day allows for more shared and guided reading.
Feels that E.L does not have anything to offer families of young children as does
Okemos and Haslett.
Kindergarten teacher:
1. There is a purpose for both types of programs. Kids from low socio-
economic families will have increased interaction, socialization and
learning from a full day program. If they don't have the type of environment
that builds on the curriculum through activities and experiences in the
home, the kids need the school to provide that. Kids from supportive
families will have the opportunity to offer enrichment activities beyond
what the school environment can offer.
2. As stated above, there are benefits to both types.
3. There is a financial drawback with funding a full day verses half day - but
the biggest thing she sees as a problem is when those parents that want
one type of a program for their child and are forced into "one plan for air
will not feel the experience is all positive.
4. The optimal plan is full and half day at each school. While that may not
be possible in this school district, it is important to have the half day at one
school from year to year - or have two - one on each side of town - to
minimize the distance between home and school. That way, each child
will be in the setting that is deemed best for them
5. A couple of things -
• The curriculum, as it stands now, can be delivered in a half day
setting. It requires a teacher with experience and familiarity of
the requirements to package it into the optimal plan. Placing
new teachers in the half day setting is very difficult because not
only are they just learning the district curriculum requirements,
they have to package it with very limited room for adjustments.
It is important for the district to keep this in mind when placing
teachers in the half day sessions.
• Alternate day programs - it is a lot of adjustment for a child to
be with new children in a new environment. Having alternate
days is another adjustment that would take longer in the
beginning and some of the time with the students adjusting
might take away from the curriculum time. Having the days
together allows for less time to regroup from their "off" day
• If doing one or two half day programs - Marble and/or Pinecrest
should be the site. It is very noticeable to a teacher like her
where the majority of parents that want half day options are
located and those two schools are the ones. She sees more
parents at home doing enrichment things with their children by
those two schools. It would split the district to keep children
closer to their neighborhood schools
• Wrap around programs - she is concerned that the ability to get
certified teachers or well qualified teachers for that setting might
be limited. She liked the idea that the curriculum would be
carried
on through enhancement activities but would want to make sure
the program had that connection to the curriculum to be optimal
and keeping the kids in the same school would be better than
transporting them to child care settings.