The Shamong Sun
The first year of full-day kindergarten for students at Indian Mills Elementary School is coming to close and the verdict was presented at May’s Board of Education meeting.
“We’ve seen from the last year that not only have kids responded well to it, but kids are enjoying it also,” Principal Nicole Moore said. “There was an adjustment period like with anything, but our students took to it very quickly.”
Moore made a presentation that, despite some technical difficulties, showed a variety of things students had worked on throughout the school year. She highlighted the many advantages the school had seen since moving to a full day including a consistent schedule for students, an unhurried school day and the ability to develop better social relationships.
Giving teachers more time with students to detect possible learning disabilities or emotional disorders was discussed as an added benefit as well.
“We’ve found that with more time, education has been expanded and that has been very beneficial for our students,” Moore said.
Interim Superintendent Dolores Szymanski had been in discussion with the elementary school for months and presented the change to the board at a meeting in March 2012. The district adopted an 8:30 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. schedule for the just completed 2012–13 school year. More than 70 percent of New Jersey districts already operate on a full-day kindergarten schedule as well.
In other news:
• The district will pay Dr. Edwin Castillo $550 per evaluation, which is a 4.8 percent increase in comparison to last year. The cost for behavioral consultant, Partners in Learning, also raised 4.8 percent to $131 per hour. The board said that the demand for either service is low and the increase in price will not be noticeably felt.
• Indian Mills Memorial School will use a $1,200 donation from the IMMS Student Council to purchase security cameras for the main office. In addition to that donation, IMMS will accept $800 from the National Junior Honor Society to offset the cost of the new security systems being installed.
• Barbara Quimby was named Indian Mills Memorial School teacher of the year and Mary Barnes Indian Mills Elementary teacher of the year.
• The 2013–14-school calendar has been revised to reflect the first day for students, Friday, Sept. 6, as early dismissal.
• The last day of school is scheduled for Wednesday, June 19 and will be an early dismissal.
