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Savage Pacer | www.savagepacer.com

August 20, 2011 | Page 15

OURSCHOOLS PRIOR LAKE-SAVAGE AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT

Beaming with blankets

Grainwood, WestWood schools get additional kindergarten classes BY MERYN FLUKER mfluker@swpub.com

Sue Ann Gruver

Patrick Glynn

concerted effort to tackle now. “We’ve been staffing at 22 [students per teacher] for the last few years, when we’ve been over crowded,” she said. District 719 enrollment is currently steady and expected to begin declining. The numbers remain stable due to large populations in the middle and high schools. The district is experiencing a downswing in elementary enrollment, including kindergarten, as the economy continues to wane and fewer young families move into the Prior Lake-Savage area. Kindergarten enrollment for the 2011-12 school year is at 451 students as of Aug. 4, down from the 467 first-graders and 489 secondgraders currently registered in the district. With the two new sections, District 719’s 22 kindergarten classes will average 20.5 students per section. “[Additional staff] will potentially bring several more students to Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools for the next 12 years,” Gruver wrote in her recommendation to the School Board. “I believe this is the investment needed at the time to bring families to our district.” Gruver has directed her attention to kindergarten because of the crucial role it plays in young students’ development. “We know that our elementary experience is critical for students,” she said. “Our dis-

istrators are still committed to providing it as an alternative for families. The $100,000 the school board committed to providing for the additional kindergarten sections on Monday will come from the district’s remaining $ 350,0 0 0 in Education Jobs Fund money. The district received $1.08 million from the federal government last fall as part of the program, which provided the one-time dollars for districts to spend on school-level salaries, benefits and services in early childhood, elementary and secondary education. The funds must be allocated by September 2012. Last fall, the district spent $350,000 of the Education Jobs Fund dollars for additional staffing. Then, earlier this year, $475,000 of that money on offering early-retirement incentives to teachers, a move designed for long-term savings by allowing room for the district to hire more new teachers, whose salaries and benefits cost less than their tenured counterparts. Gruver is planning to return to the School Board at its next meeting, on Monday, Aug. 22, with additional staffing recommendations at the elementary and possibly secondary levels if necessary. Those positions will also be funded through the remaining Education Jobs Fund dollars. As of right now, Gruver has her eyes on a ballooning kindergarten class at Five Hawks Elementary School, and said she may recommend adding a paraprofessional to that classroom to support the instructor. In addition, as the secondary schools’ staffs adjust in preparation for the first year with six-period school days, there are still wrinkles in need of ironing.

PHOTO BY MERYN FLUKER

The fifth-graders in summer Kids’ Company don big smiles as they pose for a picture with Taryn Krumwiede, one of the founders of local charity Ella’s Halo. She visited WestWood Elementary School on Aug. 11 to receive the handmade blankets and donations the students collected for the organization, which distributes comforting items to families who have children in neonatal intensive-care units.

SCHOOL BOARD AGENDA T he P rior La ke - Savage Area School District will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 22 in the board room at the District Services Center, 4540 Tower St., Prior Lake. The board will meet at 5 p.m. for a study session. The regular meeting agenda includes: Call to order Pledge of Allegiance Roll call Approval of agenda Consent agenda: Items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a board member or citizen so requests, in which event the item will be removed as a consent agenda item and addressed. A. Check/wire transfer disbursement summary B. Ba n k reconci liation statement C. Resignations, terminations and nonrenewals D. Donations

Go to . . .

Laker Pride, special recognition and Laker Showcase Open forum: A 15-minute time period is set aside to receive citizen input. Personnel items A. Approval of candidates for employment B. Approval of leaves of absence C. Approval of substitute teacher pay rates for 2011-12 Old business New business A. ADSIS grant report B. Student enrol lment/ staffi ng for 2011-12 C. Test scores update Policy A. Second and fi nal readings: Policy 413: Harassment and Violence ( Employee) ; Policy 526: Hazing Prohibition and Policy 506.1: Bullying Prohibition Administrative reports A. Superintendent report B. Administrative reports C. Board reports Future events Adjourn

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Future kindergarten students at two local elementary schools can anticipate plenty of breathing room beginning Tuesday, Sept. 6. At the Monday, Aug. 8 regular meeting, the Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board unanimously approved the immediate addition of an extended-day kindergarten class at Grainwood Elementary School. The board also gave Superintendent Sue Ann Gruver latitude to add another kindergarten section at WestWood Elementary School. The moves will cost $100,000 total. Gruver recommended the allocations based on enrollment. As of Monday, 33 kindergarten students had already registered at Grainwood. That number has now reached 34 students and Principal Patrick Glynn is “excited to be able to offer a second section of kindergarten.” “Two sections of 17 each is educationally more appropriate than only one section of 34 with a support staff,” he says. “Parents, with kindergarten being the first formal year of their child’s education, appreciate low class size and the attention staff can offer their child.” As of Monday, WestWood counted 30 kindergarten students in its ranks for the coming school year, with at least five more expected to enroll by the end of the week. “When it gets to 33 or 34, we’ll break it into two sections,” Gruver said. The superintendent said that this year, most of the extendedday kindergarten classes will have 16 to 18 students per instructor. That’s a considerably lower ratio than in past years, something Gruver is making a

trict wants our earliest learners to have the best educational experience they can have at the class-size levels we can afford.” With the increased importance placed on standardized test scores, including the new state education bill which includes Literacy Incentive Aid tied to total elementary enrollment and student reading proficiency – namely for third- and fourth-grade students – Gruver said that smaller class sizes can identify and effectively address children who struggle with literacy skills. Staff can provide “that intervention before you start to remediate,” she said. That funding change is set to take effect in beginning with the 2012-13 school year. “Over the past several years we have noticed a troubling downward enrollment in kindergarten,” Gruver wrote in her recommendation to the School Board. “There is a high correlation associated with strong kindergarten classes: these students typically remain in Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools through grade 12.” District 719 offers two kindergarten programs: extended-day classes, which are available at all District 719 kindergartenthrough-fifth-grade elementary schools – including WestWood and Grainwood – and halfday kindergarten at Edgewood School. Currently, two-thirds of district families with kindergarten students are taking advantage of extended-day kindergarten. “I believe with lower class sizes than we’ve had in the past, even more families will take advantage of that opportunity,” Gruver said, adding that while the district is offering fewer half-day kindergarten classes than it has in the past, admin-