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The Winslow Unified School District Governing Board voted to reinstate a full-day kindergarten program last week.
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Previously the kindergarten program at Bonnie Brennan Elementary School was split into two half-day schedules.
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Superintendent Cyndie Mattox said, “I want to point out that the kindergarten program would be half funded by Title 1 funding. If we had to pay for it all with maintenance and operations funding, we would not be able to afford to do that. With reinstatement, we will have to hire two aides and two full time teachers, and that is a lot.
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“Right now, we have 121 students and four teachers,” she said. “If we don’t hire more teachers, that would give them over 30 kids each and we do not want to do that. Adding two teachers will make it 20 students per classroom.”
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Mattox also noted that in talking with some of the kindergarten teachers she learned, “They have noticed that attendance issues have increased because the days are so short. Parents think that if their child is 10 minutes late, it doesn’t matter because the day is so short.”
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Governing Board Vice President Joey Hartnett said, “I have been a proponent of all-day kindergarten for a while. I see the benefit of it, especially when they get to first grade and they are better prepared. They are better readers and the transition is much easier.”
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Full-day kindergarten will begin with the 2019-20 school year.
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It was also announced that hourly employees of the school district will receive a $1 per hour pay increase effective immediately. This will facilitate the continued implementation of Proposition 206, the minimum wage increase. State law does not require the increase to go in to effect until January of 2020.
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The governing board also passed a motion to approve the position description of District 504 Coordinator and to authorize the hiring of a person to fill that position. The coordinator would work with families of students with diagnosed illnesses on plans pertaining to their education in the Winslow school system. A certified employee of the district would fill this position.
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In other business, the governing board:
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Approved changes to the salary schedules pertaining to hourly-paid employees.
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* Approved a change to the certified extra duty salary schedule to include the position of District 504 Coordinator.
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* Approved the hiring of Therese Kolomitz, substitute teacher; Dylan Baker, Tony Park, Cody Densmore and Paul Park as substitute bus drivers; Kyler Decker, part-time lunch aid and part-time food service administrative assistant; and Brianna Conaster as a junior varsity softball coach.
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* Approved volunteers for spring sports.
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* Approved the resignation of Jennifer Yazzie, junior varsity softball coach; Candace Harman, third grade teacher; Justin Hartman, high school principal; Robin Henry, secretary of the Superintendent and governing board; and Ronnie Polyhemptewa, bus driver.
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* Approved donations in the following amounts: $71 to Bonnie Brennan from Sonic Night; $52 to Jefferson Elementary School from Sonic Night; $85 to Washington Elementary School from Sonic Night; $49 to Washington Elementary School from the Spirit and Pride program; and $150 to the eighth-grade girls basketball team to cover the cost of T-shirts from Charlie Springer at Sacred Mountain Builders.
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* Ratified vouchers in a routine procedure allowing the district to submit vouchers to the county superintendent between board meetings.
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* Approved out of state travel on Feb. 12-14 for Indian Education Committee member Norma Wagner to Acoma, N.M., to attend the regional Johnson O’Malley Conference. The trip will be funded by Johnson O’Malley.
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* Approved the 2020 application for Impact Aid, a routine annual procedure.
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* Approved the change of location, time and structure of the March 5 governing board meeting to 4 p.m. at the Winslow High School Performing Arts Center, located at 600 E. Cherry St. The meeting will be conducted as a work-study session with a presentation from the Danielson Group on the implementation of the new teacher evaluation instrument.
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* Adopted the Danielson Framework for Teaching as a district wide evaluation instrument.
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The next meeting of the Winslow Unified School District Governing Board will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 3 in the district office, located at 800 N. Apache Ave.
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