Kindergarten students get extra help

Luverne Elementary School will offer junior kindergarten starting this fall, due to concerns that incoming students aren’t classroom ready.
Elementary principal Stacy Gillette presented the junior kindergarten proposal to School Board members at a special meeting April 14.
She said the objective is to provide a pre-kindergarten program for children who are 5 and eligible for kindergarten but are lacking some academic and development skills.
“Kindergarten has always been the great equalizer,” she wrote in a summary to the board.
“Kindergarten classes often have some students with limited exposure to the school environment and at the same time some students who can read and write already.”
This can lead to student frustration and inappropriate behaviors, “… which creates a challenge for the teacher and puts a strain on the school support system,” Gillette wrote. “Such situations do not set up students for success.”
Of 109 children invited to the recent kindergarten roundup, 75 students were confirmed registrations, 18 were homeschool students or were moving, 11 students held for next year, and five were unknown as to whether they’d attend this year or wait.
“In Luverne it is common for parents to hold students who turn 5 in the summer months,” Gillette wrote.
“Our proposal is instead of holding these students, let’s create a program to address their needs and welcome them to school.”
Gillette said she visited with staff members about junior kindergarten at the Pipestone elementary.
“The curriculum for our program will focus on the basic reading and math skills children should know prior to entering kindergarten,” she said.
“There will be heavy emphasis on play and social interaction skills as well as hands-on projects to develop fine motor skills.”
According to Community Education Director Lisa J. Nath, Discovery Time preschool teachers are concerned about the number of students who were not ready for kindergarten but are planning to start kindergarten this fall.
The cost of preschool tuition, ineligibility for early learning scholarships, and lack of day care are factors for parents enrolling 5-year-olds ahead of their readiness.
Nath said the coronavirus pandemic affected preschool students when in-person learning for the district was interrupted in the spring of 2020 and continued into 2021.
Nath found her teachers were unable to adequately instruct through the Zoom platform with many parents working from home as well as overseeing assignments for their other school-aged children.
Further, the state of Minnesota is encouraging all children who are 5 years old by Sept. 1 to enroll in kindergarten.
Families with children in this timeframe would be ineligible for early learning scholarships, which often balanced the preschool tuition for the families’ budgets if they chose to wait until their children were 6 before entering kindergarten.
In Luverne’s junior kindergarten proposal, a fifth section of kindergarten would be added as junior kindergarten and limited to 12-15 students for the teacher. With a paraprofessional, enrollment could be 15-20 students.
“We are excited to offer this new option for families and provide a positive, structured program for these children,” Gillette said.
 
New elementary playground equipment
Board members accepted the bid of $262,244 from Minnesota-Wisconsin Playground, Golden Valley, to replace the north and south playground equipment at the elementary school.
Buildings and grounds supervisor Cory Schmuck said the company’s GameTime commercial equipment provides better quality and more activities than the equipment of Flagship Recreation, which submitted a lower bid of $228,932.
District business manager Tyler Reisch indicated he has $262,000 budgeted in the ESSR fund to replace the 30-year-old playground equipment, and it has been approved as an appropriate expenditure.
The new playground equipment is expected to be in place late this summer.