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Mt. Lebanon upgrades kindergarten registration process

By Harry Funk 3 min read
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Mt. Lebanon parents who are registering their children for kindergarten will notice some changes for 2016-17.

At the Jan. 18 school board meeting, Marybeth Irvin, assistant superintendent of elementary education, and Jason Ramsey, Foster Elementary School principal, discussed what they hope will be improvements to the process.

For example, parents should know certain relevant information much sooner.

“We are going to be actually providing all of the kindergarten session assignments to all parents before the last day of school,” Ramsey told the board, instead of the past practice of early to mid-August.

Another change is that orientations at all seven Mt. Lebanon elementary schools will occur the same day, listed at the board meeting as May 6.

“They used to be different, and one thing that we have found from our preschools and our parents was that seven different orientations caused a lot of confusion,” Ramsey said.

He and Irvin gave information about the district’s new early childhood screen, called Brigance, developed by Massachusetts educational product provider Curriculum Associates.

“It’s about a 15- to 20-minute screening tool which really provides us with a benchmark of student knowledge coming into kindergarten,” Ramsey explained. “It’s really going to help us make the most informed decisions in helping students have that best experience as they come to kindergarten.”

The tool features an input component.

“The parents will also have a chance to give us information about their child,” Irvin said.

That includes preferences for morning or afternoon kindergarten, and she said the district is taking a new approach to making assignments.

“We had a place where parents would check morning or afternoon,” Irvin said about the relevant forms. “We felt that, sometimes when the parents checked that, they felt that was sort of locking that in stone.

“So we actually just changed the wording on that piece and asked them to provide us information in terms with what placement made the most sense for their family,” she continued. “We try to meet everyone’s needs as best we can.”

A committee that included administrators, teachers and others arrived at recommendations for changes.

“We’ve received over the years a lot of input about this process from our families, from child care providers and, of course, from our kindergarten teachers,” Irvin said.

Ramsey said his personal experience has been helpful in the process.

“My son will be starting kindergarten this fall, so I also look at this from a parent perspective, as well,” he told the board. “And I think having that parent piece is one we have not had before.”

The kindergarten registration and orientation schedule:

• Feb. 1 – Pick up materials and sign up for screening

• May 12-27 – Screening interviews

• June 8 – Session assignments

• Aug. 29-30 – Teacher interviews

• Aug. 31 – First day of kindergarten

The August dates were contingent on the school board approving the district’s 2016-17 academic calendar, which also occurred at the Jan. 18 meeting, setting the first day of classes for other students on Aug. 29.

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