The long and short of it

Numbers, letters and colors are quickly becoming less of a mystery to the kids in Jacque Dean’s extended-day kindergarten class at Coeur d’Alene’s Atlas Elementary School.

Five-year-old Cecily Goldman can rattle off the alphabet without hesitation, pointing to the letter-shaped puzzle pieces in front of her. Ask her about colors, and she’ll give you an earful.

“I know blue, pink, orange, red and green and black and white – those are the colors I know,” she said.

“We’ve been here, like, almost the whole day,” said her classmate Mykael Maddox, 5. “We get a whole big lunch recess.”

These kids are doing what more and more schools want all kindergartners to do: stay for a full day instead of the traditional half day.

In Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed budget allocates $41.6 million to expand access to voluntary full-day kindergarten throughout the state beginning with the state’s poorest schools. Right now, both Washington and Idaho only fund half-day kindergarten. Idaho Gov. Butch Otter said recently he has no intention of advocating to change that until the rest of the public school system is adequately funded.

So, school districts are on their own for funding more class time for kindergartners, and more are doing so through fees or voter-approved tax levies.

The Coeur d’Alene School District started optional full-day kindergarten in fall 2003 using money from a supplemental maintenance and operation levy passed that spring. Kids qualify based on pre-kindergarten screenings that show who might need extra help. Funding for optional full-day kindergarten is part of a supplemental levy the Lake Pend Oreille School District is asking voters to approve this spring. In the smaller Kellogg School District, all kindergartners stay for a full day, thanks to a supplemental levy passed in April 2006.

“I think other elementary principals and teachers would agree – if we could have all-day kindergarten for all students, that would be optimal,” said Kathy Kuntz, principal of Atlas Elementary.

Achievement standards and the tests that go with them have changed the focus of kindergarten. What was once more of a social program for kids is now “basically like first grade was for most parents and grandparents,” Kuntz said.

Lydia Fesler, a kindergarten reading coordinator for Spokane Public Schools, said, “What we’ve heard over and over is that the day is too short. … First-grade teachers have to do what kindergarten teachers should do.”

And that’s one of the main reasons Kellogg opted to switch to full-day kindergarten.

“Students were just not given enough time to meet the requirements and the standards we were asked to get them to,” said Bonnie Farmin, the district’s director of curriculum, instruction and assessment.

Spokane officials recently examined the benefits and challenges of full-day kindergarten and listed five potential schools where all-day kindergarten could be implemented. Among them is Holmes Elementary School, where 90 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch.

“It’s like we are doing minisprints all day,” said Holmes kindergarten teacher Amber Perry. “We really spend the first half of the year on simple social skills.”

Last year, with its federal Title I dollars – the money given to low-income schools – Holmes began offering an extended-day program for its neediest learners. But there’s not enough money for every student.

The state now funds only half-day kindergarten, so districts charge tuition or use general funds to make up the difference

Central Valley School District began offering full-day kindergarten in 2000 and currently has nine full-day classes. Parents pay $250 to $260 a month, but state assistance programs are available. Spokane Public Schools officials said they’re looking for more support from the Washington Legislature before adding an expensive new program districtwide.

“We want to look at what the Legislature funds before we do anything,” said Nancy Stowell, associate superintendent for teaching and learning for Spokane schools.

Stowell said implementing full-day kindergarten would require training for teachers.

If the program became successful, eventually the district would need to modify its curriculum across all grade levels because kids would be more advanced.

Kuntz said keeping all students longer would allow more flexibility in the schedule. As it is now, kindergartners who stay later spend the morning in the half-day class, then go to Dean’s class in the afternoon. Dean builds on what the morning teacher has taught but tries to keep things looser.

“It’s a long day for those little ones,” Kuntz said. “They have to have that time just to kind of let loose and be children.”

If all kids were in class for equal time, teachers could operate at a more moderate pace rather than having a morning cram session and a much more relaxed afternoon, she said.

District officials call full-day kindergarten a wonderful success story. Nearly 40 percent of the kids who started in the full-day program last year were reading way below the standard level for their age. When they left, 86 percent were proficient.

Some working parents who struggle with their child’s half-day schedules would welcome an all-day program because it minimizes transitions for children throughout the day.

“The reasons why we chose it was less time spent transporting,” said parent Brenda Thosath, whose daughter attends a tuition-based all-day kindergarten at South Pines Elementary in Spokane Valley’s Central Valley School District.

With a traditional kindergarten schedule, “you get them there and an hour later you’re back to pick them up, then you have to go back and pick up your other child,” Thosath said.

Lori Johnson, principal of Liberty Elementary in south Spokane County, which has offered only full-day kindergarten since 2004, said some parents were initially concerned about a longer day. But Johnson said the students don’t take naps and don’t seem to need them.

Thosath said her experience bears that out.

“On Mondays, Chloe goes all day and then we go over to ballet class, come home and get ready for scouts and she gets up the next morning ready to go,” said Thosath. “So many of the kids today are so used to being in day care and preschool that more of the kids are used to that all-day schedule.”