.jpg)
Buena Vista school leaders are beginning to brainstorm some advantageous changes for the district. With an influx of pre-kindergarten students, Kling Elementary School is running out of building space to provide adequate educational services. Teachers are getting creative to make things work – some teachers are even using their closets to provide separate remedial classes, Kling Principal Lisa Clark noted.
At last week’s School Board meeting, administrators announced they were considering relocating Kling’s second grade classes to join third through fifth grades at Enderly Heights Elementary School.
“It’s a move that would make sense space-wise and provide [proper] services,” Clark told the Board.
Putting second grade at Enderly could serve as a productive transition year for students and parents. In second grade, students move from the rudimentary grading scale of kindergarten and first grade levels to the regular grading scale that will be used throughout the remainder of their academic careers. Students begin taking Standards of Learning assessments in third grade, so having an adjustment period to get accustomed to a new grading scale and more advanced curriculum would be beneficial to students, Assistant Superintendent Gennifer Miller said.
Clark was adamant that in order to provide satisfactory educational services, both teachers and students need an appropriate learning environment. Post-Covid, Clark feels like young students have the biggest need for educational intervention services.
“Where we’re seeing the biggest gap is with our younger students who were either home with no exposure for two years, they didn’t go to preschool because of Covid, [or] they didn’t have life experiences because of Covid. So, I have kids in kindergarten right now that have never been potty trained,” Clark said.
“We’re seeing [the learning gap] on that lower end than what I feel like we’re seeing from kids in the middle,” she continued. “The kids in the middle are catching up and getting the intervention they need.”
Younger students require more intervention, smaller class sizes, and a larger learning environment, Clark said.
For scale, there are currently four second grade classes with 75 students. Next year’s second grade class will have about 58 students. This year’s kindergarten class has 79 students divided between four classes, and Clark believes that next year’s kindergarten size will easily match this year’s enrollment.
Clark also mentioned that there will be three impaired students joining KES that will need a designated classroom space for self-contained services.
“[You] need the proper space to adequately teach students and there’s no space!” Clark said.
Enderly Elementary School has available classrooms throughout the school that could undoubtedly accommodate second grade classes, EHES Principal Devan Nicely told the Board. As second grade classes would move into EHES, the school’s Head Start classes would move out to join the younger students at Kling Elementary. Clark believes holding Head Start classes at Kling will allow for a smoother and more cohesive program as those students graduate to kindergarten.
While this arrangement is still in the exploratory stage, Superintendent Tony Francis acknowledges that communication throughout the process is going to be an important component when making the transition.
“Change is hard, so it’s going to be super important for us to communicate with teachers and parents,” he said.
