The Garden City Telegram
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Proponents: Shared resources a benefit
Published 8/30/2008 in News : Education
Editor's note: This is the first in a five-part series examining the individual facilities projects USD 457 would carry out upon successful passage of a $97.5 million bond issue on the Nov. 4 ballot. The next installment, about conversion of Abe Hubert Middle School into an elementary school, will appear on Wednesday.
By EMILY BEHLMANN
ebehlmann@gctelegram.com
A centralized early childhood center for USD 457 has been a dream of Karen Kyler's for years.
The dream could become a reality if voters approve a $97.5 million bond issue in November. Among other things, the funds would cover an estimated $3.65-million addition -- $3,905,500 in all with architects' fees -- to Garfield Elementary School that would make room for all the district's early childhood programs to be in one spot.
Currently, the district's early childhood special education and Early Learning for Four-year-olds (ELF) programs -- for children considered at risk of falling behind -- are spread among several elementary schools. They and probably some Head Start pre-school classes would move into the expanded building.
The center would be the second-most costly project of the proposed bond issue, well behind the proposed $92.5 million new high school building. If GCHS students moved there, it would leave room for Abe Hubert Middle School students and staff to use the current high school building. Garfield's staff and students, in turn, would move into Abe Hubert.
Planned expansion
Architects' plans call for an 11-classroom addition to the north side of Garfield, giving the facility 25 classrooms that would surround offices in the center. A multi-purpose room and some additional offices and restrooms also would be added.
Special Education Director Karen Johnson, who led a committee that studied the idea of an early childhood center, said the building would have the capacity to serve 300 students at once. Since early childhood programs operate on half-day sessions, 600 students could be served each day.
The expansion would bump the back side of the building about 132 feet farther back, still leaving about 65 feet between the school and a house that stands to its northwest, according to architect Stuart Nelson, of the local firm Gibson, Mancini, Carmichael and Nelson.
There still would be plenty of space for a playground suited for 3- to 5-year-olds behind the building, he said, and the district is considering enclosing the play area for safety reasons.
Garfield was the chosen location after a recommendation from a USD 457 committee that looks at the district's long-term facility needs. The main reasons were the building's central location -- it lies at the intersection of Eighth and Walnut streets -- and the fact that there's room for expansion, according to USD 457 Financial Officer Kathleen Whitley, who leads the committee.
Willis Pracht, principal at Garfield, said shortly after the board agreed to the plan that he and his staff are comfortable with their building being selected for the change.
In fact, it would be a positive step because it would give them more space, he said. The school recently lost library space when an early childhood classroom was added there.
He said he thinks Garfield staff, which he called a "family," are agreeable to "moving to a different house, as long as we still live together."
It's academic
The single early childhood center would bring together programs that are currently housed in 14 classrooms across the district.
Eight rooms are used for special education classes that serve students beginning at age 3. Johnson said school districts are federally mandated to hold monthly screenings of 3- to 5-year-olds in the community, and to get those with developmental delays into pre-kindergarten programs. Some also wind up in the program from Russell Child Development Center, which serves younger children with delays.
Currently, there are 122 students enrolled, but numbers tend to grow as more screenings are conducted, Johnson said. She expects her allotted classrooms to be full by December, and she's generally seeing an increase in special education numbers. The program is funded by a combination of state and federal special education money.
ELF, paid for by a state grant, is for students with other risk factors, Assistant Superintendent Shelly Kiblinger said. Children can qualify if they live in poverty, have a single parent, have limited English proficiency, have parents lacking a high school diploma or GED, are considered migrants, receive referrals from Social and Rehabilitation Services, or are academically delayed but not behind enough to qualify for special education.
Kiblinger said the state funds 192 slots, but that the district would probably ask for more funds if the district had room to place the students. Now, rooms are at capacity, she said.
"I do think there are more children in the community that qualify," she said.
Having all those students in one place, plus bringing in Head Start -- an agency that picks up other developmentally delayed children -- would have academic benefits, several USD 457 educators said.
"The books in the library, computer programs, everything would be geared toward early childhood," said Kyler, the early childhood teacher who currently works at Florence Wilson Elementary School. Assemblies, playground equipment and parent-involvement events also would be age appropriate, educators said.
Kyler also said students would benefit if their teachers had more opportunity to collaborate, which would be much easier if they were all in one place.
"Teacher collaboration is invaluable for teachers being able to share their ideas of what things work," Kiblinger said.
She said the committee also looked at a possible drawback to establishing an early childhood center. It could create an additional school-to-school transition for students, which the Board of Education, after hearing research of their detrimental effects, stated it wanted to keep to a minimum.
However, Kiblinger said, between one-third and two-thirds of children already make a transition between early childhood and kindergarten anyway, since the school in their neighborhood might not have an early childhood program.
Logistics and economics
Centralizing childhood would have other effects, like allowing for shared equipment and educational toys, which would mean more could ultimately be purchased, Kiblinger said.
The sharing of materials is one of the main benefits GeoReta Jones, director of Head Start, sees in getting involved. She said Head Start would continue with its home-based services and would still use some of its current classrooms -- now seven scattered across the community -- but Head Start could work out an agreement for using some rooms at the expanded school district building.
"We're excited about the idea of collaborating with the school district and other early childhood programs to make it a one-stop shop," she said.
As Head Start struggles to maintain its current level of services without funding increases in recent years from the federal government, sharing of resources would help, Jones said.
Another logistical benefit would be reduced travel time for occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech/language pathologists who now travel among elementary schools to serve the early childhood children, Johnson said. That means both a reduction in mileage expenses and an increase in time spent with students, she said.
Creation of an early childhood center also would free up the 14 classrooms USD 457 elementary schools are using for the early childhood programs. Those could be used to lower class sizes, assuming the district hired more teachers, or they would provide classrooms for writing teachers, art teachers or others who, at some schools, now travel from room to room, Kiblinger said.
"Currently, space is at a premium," she said.
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