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Friday's Internet Edition, November 21, 2008.
Elementary school district’s preschool program expands
Fairsite readies for 500 students from preschool to first grade for coming school year
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During a Family Literacy event, preschoolers and their families worked together to not only produce better readers, but also to make their very own bus. The activity is part of the program’s focus to inspire families to have fun reading together.
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By Kymm Griffin
Staff Writer
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The Galt Joint Union Elementary School District has received funding from the First 5 California Commission to expand the current preschool classes and to focus on kindergarten preparedness.
Over the next four years, the district will receive $912,269 to fund a variety of programs designed to prepare Galt’s little ones for elementary school.
A portion of this money will be used to offer two five-week programs over the summer that target children who did not attend preschool and need to improve their kindergarten readiness skills, such as fine motor skills and emotional and social skills.
The district’s larger goal is to expand the locations where preschool is being offered so that families on both sides of the city can participate.
Last year the pre-kindergarten and family literacy grant paid for two after-school preschool classes that were held between 3 and 6 p.m. The school district also receives another preschool grant that funds two morning preschool classes. All preschool classes have been offered at Fairsite.
Currently there are qualification restrictions on family income to participate in the program, but the classes are open to all families within district boundaries.
With the addition of the First 5 grant, the preschool program has doubled in size.
“We can serve up to 96 students,” said Fairsite principal Donna Whitlock. Currently only 48 have registered for next year.
Whitlock, who has been the district’s English learner program specialist, will be the principal at Fairsite Elementary. A key focus area that helps differentiate this program is that it focuses on family literacy as well as student preparedness. Parents are taught how to work alongside the teachers to help their children become better readers. This helps to ensure consistent instruction at home and at school and to reinforce good reading habits.
“I’ve started already; there is so much planning to do,” said Whitlock.
Whitlock is also excited about the quality of staff at Fairsite. There will be 24 teachers on campus and only one with less than 10 years’ experience.
“We have the most experienced staff in the district,” said Whitlock.
Whitlock says that the district focus on kindergarten readiness is part of a larger trend being led by State Superintendent Jack O’Connell. For the first time, the state has published standards for preschool that include language arts, math, English language development, and social-emotional development.
“It’s really monumental; we’ve never had standards for preschool,” said Whitlock.
By expanding the focus of the district from K-8 to PreK-8, the Galt Joint Union Elementary School District is staying at the forefront in educational trends.
General Fairsite
Elementary Update
Almost 500 preschool, kindergarten and first grade students will attend Fairsite next year. The school plans to offer 10 first grade classes, 10 kindergarten classes, of which five will be full day classes, and four half-day preschool classes.
“I have been working on safety,” said Whitlock.
In response to the large numbers of small children all trying to get to school at the same time, Whitlock has set the school schedule so that each grade starts at least 10 minutes apart. Kindergarteners will starts at 7:45 a.m. First grade students and full day kindergartners will start at 8 a.m. Preschool students will start at 8:10 a.m.
“We’re really encouraging parents to use the buses,” said Whitlock.
For families of students who live within walking district of Valley Oaks Elementary, but will be attending Fairsite, a bus will pick them up at Valley Oaks School and take them to Fairsite.
The district will also be contacting parents to invite them to participate in a safety class and to further explain school site safety procedures.
Whitlock is also working with P.E. teacher Lonnie West to develop and teach playground rules for all of the various games available during recess time. The hope is to teach all of the students the same rules to the games and to encourage more structured playtime supervised by the yard duty team, as opposed to having four-, five-, and six-year-old children trying to teach each other games.
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