Kimball to hire third kindergarten teacher

The Kimball Board of Education voted unanimously to hire a third kindergarten teacher for the upcoming school year during its regularly scheduled meeting Monday night.

After hearing from five educators on staff currently, the board agreed that the rising number of youngsters in class warranted the extra staff.

In addition to a larger kindergarten class, educators stated that pupils in kindergarten through second grade have higher needs and demand more attention in general.

“I’ll be honest with you, earlier on, when it was brought to me I said that we need to wait,” Superintendent Marshall Lewis said. “We just did the kindergarten round-up and we are talking about 23 very energetic young kids per classroom.”

Lewis stated that he believes students should have the best start possible and so he has changed his mind about the issue.

“A few years down the road 23 may be a very acceptable number for the classroom,” Lewis said. “At kindergarten, it probably is not.”

Staff, administration and the board all agreed that the third teacher would need to understand that the position is fluid.

“It may or may not be a sliding, rotating, moving position. Just because we have three this year does not guarantee we are going to have three kindergarten teachers next year,” Lewis said. “It might go to first grade. It might be that we want to emphasize that, but that is something we need to assess. It might be that there is not a position next year.”

Currently more than 30 pre-kindergarten students are moving into kindergarten, and guidance counselor Jamie Golding expects that number to increase prior to the beginning of the coming school year.

Several teachers spoke in favor of hiring a third kindergarten teacher, including first grade teacher Renee Carlson, special education teacher Sheila Dea and veteran early childhood educator Cathy Flores.

“Early childhood is kind of my niche and it sounds like most of you are in agreement, but with the young kids, I am going to continue to implore you to go (with) three,” Carlson said. “They are concrete thinkers and everything we do in (grades) K, one and two is their foundation for everything later on. So if we want test scores to continue to rise, they have to have a lot more individualized attention in those younger grades.”

“The primary grades need to be kept under 20 because they are not independent learners. They need a lot of direction from the adult in the room,” Flores said. “Also there are a lot more needs, special needs and behavioral needs – things we are facing that I never faced 30 years ago.”

First and second grade teachers stated that they are concerned that if class size remains above 20 they would not be able to effectively educate the students and to keep test scores up.

Additionally, the board voted to extend the contract for a board goal regarding curriculum and assessment, an additional responsibility that will performed by Vicki Mitchell.

Mitchell currently provides some curriculum and assessment work, as well as teaching and coaching. The new position, curriculum and assessment director, would be more intense.

Board members expressed concern that the added duties would “burn out” Mitchell, but according to Lewis, she is giving up a coaching position to devote time to the duty.

Additionally, Mitchell would be able to work on her new duties, including expanding on current curriculum and learning support, on her own timeline.

“This is one of the board’s five main goals – to improve and organize our curriculum. Through some conversations with our current curriculum and assessments coordinator, I think we have gotten to a place where we are able to effectively and efficiently translate that into some expanding curriculum,” Lewis said. “We are looking at expanding what she does. With this move we would also be putting her back into the classroom as a full teacher, where before one eighth or one ninth of her day was dedicated to curriculum in theory.”

Lewis reported the additional $12,000 Mitchell would receive would cover not only an expanded curriculum but also an extra period of high school science.

The contract would be similar to a coaching contract without set hours, according to Lewis. He added that Mitchell is skilled and passionate in the area.

The board also:

- Heard a report from Gregg Fossand about grounds and transportation and asked for more information to be provided in a report for consideration at the next board meeting.

- Discussed and approved school nurse Melissa Reich’s resignation.

- Discussed and approved Luke Maas’ new contract for high school science teacher.

- Heard a request to discuss substitute teaching salary at the next board meeting.

- Approved a lawn care bid.

- Discussed the installation of carpet in nine classrooms over the summer.