Changes to Kindergarten Schedule, Some Consider Alternatives

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – In a presentation to parents at Roosevelt Elementary School’s PTA meeting on Thursday, Jan. 20, Dr. Greg Baker, the school district’s new superintendent, explained some of the problems that the school district is trying to work on with the new schedule.

Amongst these problems is the issue of school start and end times, which were changed for the 2010-2011 school year. Baker explained that the district will be considering another time change for the 2011-2012 school year, adding 15 minutes to both the beginning and the end of the elementary school day to allow for 45 minutes in between school releases for bus routes.

At the moment, the middle schools release students at 3:00 p.m. but the elementary schools release students at 3:30 p.m., which has not given the buses sufficient time to make their routes and arrive at the elementary schools on time, according to Baker.

Baker recognized that some parents have expressed that they would prefer if school start times could be closer together.

“Currently, we have to keep the schedule the way it is because of the number of buses that the district has available,” Baker said. “We need to maintain 45 minutes between school start times for those buses to be able to deliver kids to school on time.”


If the schedule change is approved for the 2011-2012 school year, this would be the second consecutive year of school-day time changes in the district. 

In February 2010 the Bellingham Public School District announced that due to budget cuts on the state level, the school district would be forced to change scheduling for some schools in the area, according to a news release on the school district’s website.

In March 2010 the district announced the new schedule on its website: middle and high school schedules would remain the same (8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for middle school and 7:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. for high school) but with some larger changes at the elementary school level.

It was announced that for the 2010-2011 school year all elementary school children would meet for the same amount of time, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., meaning that students in kindergarten through second grade would be given a half an hour more instruction time per day than they had previously, but also that students in third through fifth grades would be given half an hour less instruction time per day.

With this announcement also came some large changes in the structure of the school day for kindergarteners. The school district decided to switch from a half-day every-day schedule to a full-day every-other-day schedule. Kindergarteners this year either go to school Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Monday, or Wednesday, Friday, and every other Monday.

One of the parents at the meeting, Tiffany McNutt, said that she feels lucky because the schedule works fine for her life as a stay-at-home mom. McNutt sympathized with other parents who were not in the same position.

“It’s really difficult for parents who have to work full time to find care for their kids in the mornings, in addition to full time care every other day,” McNutt said.

Under this system, students have the option of opting into full-day every-day kindergarten, but because the state of Washington only pays for part time kindergarten for every student, tuition is required on a sliding scale, from $1,000 per year to $3,500 per year.

At the meeting, Baker recognized that the later start time for elementary school may be causing difficulties for many parents with finding before school day-care for their children. He also expressed his concern with the full-day, every other day system for incoming kindergarteners.

“There are a lot of parents who are looking for other options, and deciding to put their children in private kindergarten,” Baker said. “But I am concerned that we will lose a lot of those kids, because they may not want to come back to the public school system after starting out in a private school.”

In Baker’s “Entry Plan Report,” released on January 27, 2011 on the district’s website, he expresses his concerns with the current kindergarten system creating inequalities and inconsistent learning experiences for children, as some students are taking kindergarten every day, while others are only taking it every other day. Baker says his goal is to “provide full-time kindergarten at no cost for all or as many district families as possible starting in fall 2011.”

Kristy Knopp, the mother of two Roosevelt Elementary students, expressed her feelings about the situation, as the mother of a child who will be enrolling in kindergarten next year. Knopp has put both of her older children, now in first and second grades, through private kindergarten at Bellingham Christian School.

“Bellingham Christian is a great school,” Knopp said. “They offer full-time Monday through Friday kindergarten, and the school is very small, family-oriented, and everybody helps look out for each other.”

Knopp said she appreciates being able to have personal relationships with her student’s teachers at the private school, which she feels is something you have to go out of your way to maintain in the public school system.

For Knopp’s family, the number one reason for returning to the public school system after kindergarten is the cost of private education. But also, Knopp explained that public school offers some benefits that private school does not.

“I do like that there is a lot more diversity,” Knopp said. “It’s great to have everybody in the same neighborhood because you really get a better sense of your neighborhood and the other people in it.”

The school district is currently taking input from parents, students, and community members through an online survey on the district’s website.

The survey presents the main issues the district is facing, including Dr. Baker’s proposal to use levy money to sponsor full-day every-day kindergarten for all students, tuition-free.

Another issue presented to survey takers is the schedule change, which would change the current elementary school start and end times from 9:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. and from 3:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.

Along with the issue of start and end time changes, survey takers are asked what their preference is for start and end times amongst the different age levels, allowing for the option to move the existing start and end times between school levels.

Baker challenged those at the meeting, along with anyone who reads his entry plan report, to “share a better no-cost or low-cost solution” to the current scheduling problems.