by Sylvie Belmondbelmond@theacorn.com

The Simi Valley Unified School District, at last Tuesday’s board meeting, added Abraham Lincoln Elementary School to the schools that will offer longer hours for kindergar

ten students in the upcoming

school year.

Sixteen schools in the district

will now have programs that

lengthen the day for kindergar

ten students by 90 minutes. Five

schools will continue to offer

the standard three-hour-day

schedule because of restricted

classroom space.

Becky Wetzel, director of el

ementary education for Simi

Valley Unified School District,

assured school officials that

Abraham Lincoln would be able

to accommodate the change

without affecting older students.

The school didn’t ask for the

longer day until now because

teachers wanted to be sure they

had the room, she said.

Parents are overwhelmingly

in support of the longer days and

kindergarten teachers endorse

the schedule, she said.

Township Elementary

School started the extended-day

schedule two years ago. Kinder

garten teacher Sharon Harper

said that the longer schedule

enables her to provide a com

plete kindergarten experience

for her students.

Previously, Harper and an

other teacher shared a classroom

for morning and afternoon ses

sions, but they found that as ex

pectations grew, class time was

too short. The extensive aca

demic requirements require

young students to read and write

before they start first grade.

“I’m not sure that develop

mentally I agree, but it seems to

be working,” Harper said. 

The new language arts pro

gram required more time, and

teachers were no longer able to

give kindergartners a traditional

experience during the shorter

school day program, Harper

said. But the extra 90 minutes

allows teachers to offer physi

cal education, art, music, social

science and science. More im

portantly, “we are able to give

traditional kindergarten experi

ences to the kids, allowing them

to play with blocks and clay,

paint, and more.”  

Each year the school board

reviews the status for each

school and evaluates available

space and parent reactions. The

district’s first priority is to ac

commodate the incoming stu

dents, but decreased enrollment

has helped to open up space.

Although a few schools

won’t be able to offer the longer

day schedule, parents can use

the open enrollment policy to

place their child in a school that

provides the longer hours if their

local school doesn’t.

However, the program does have drawbacks. Kindergarten teachers won’t be available to help at-risk students in higher grades because of the longer days.

“The kindergarten teachers were doing a good job helping needy students and they won’t be able to do this anymore,” said Rob Collins, school board member.

Wetzel assured Collins that the intervention program at her school will still be adequate.