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Canfield schools look forward to first class of all-day kindergarten students entering first grade
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
After the first full year of all-day kindergarten, Canfield school officials are elated with the results.
Also, first-grade teachers are looking forward to having the first full class of kindergarten students in their classrooms.
“I think they got to experience an all-day program, which gives them more time to be at school and experience the routine,” said Jan Johnson, a first-grade teacher at C.H. Campbell Elementary.
The district has two elementary buildings, C.H. Campbell and Hilltop Elementary, and district officials pointed to preschool programming shifting within the buildings and all-day kindergarten as two boosts for children. Last summer, the preschool offerings moved from the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center on Palmyra Road to within the two elementaries.
“To have them here at a younger age, they’re going to be familiar with the building and recognize people,” said Joe Maroni, Hilltop principal.
He also said the all-day aspect allowed teachers to go “deeper into curriculum, and the teachers spent more time on reading.”
Superintendent Alex Geordan echoed Maroni and said children were coming to the district at 3-year-old and 4-year-old readiness levels, which are assessed in kindergarten.
“We feel that because of all-day, everyday kindergarten and our guided reading series, it addressed those kids’ individual needs so that they are now ready for first grade,” Geordan said. “It really drove our numbers up, and looking at comparing the [before] and [after] assessments, our youngsters really outperformed what we anticipated.”
Guided reading, introduced in the district last year, sets each student at a his or her reading level, and students work in small groups at the same reading level. To do that, there are six to eight copies of the same book for those small groups. Students progress up to more-difficult books as their reading improves.
Geordan also believes all-day kindergarten has helped boost enrollment in a closed district by bringing Canfield families back to Canfield schools. Last year, there were 171 kindergarten students compared with 161 in first grade and 159 in second grade. Enrollment figures for the 2015-16 school year are not available until October, Geordan said.
“We had more kindergartners last year than first-graders. [That’s] usually unheard of,” the superintendent said. “We had a lot of youngsters come back to us that were in parochial intermediate middle-school level this year. We had a lot of new enrollees from private and parochial [schools], and they just decided to come back to their home school.”
Parents returning to the district said more course offerings, technology upgrades and art offerings in the younger grades brought them back, Geordan said.
The benefit of preschool in district buildings, as well as all-day kindergarten, has social and academic offerings, school officials said.
“Almost every one of these students is going to be entering first grade as a reader,” said Travis Lavery, C.H. Campbell prinicpal.
Familiarity with the building, the students knowing the routines at lunch, recess and before- and after-school busing are important for students. “There were anxieties from some of the kids that would struggle to get familiar with those experiences, so it’s nice they will already have those experiences under their belt,” Lavery said.
“That’s a big thing – the confidence – when they’re 5, 6, 7 years old. If they feel more confident being here, I think you have a better start to the beginning of the school year,” Johnson said. “They’re ready to go. They’re not as nervous or scared of being here all day because they did that last year.”