Kindergarten classes just got a little longer

Marisa O’Neil

Kindergarteners at most district schools will spend more time on

campus this coming school year.

Newport Mesa Unified School District is giving each school the

option of going to full-day or extended-day kindergarten. Some sites,

like Newport Coast and Whittier elementary schools, have already

adopted the longer day, but parents at other schools are split over

the prospect.

“Some parents really don’t like the idea,” said Kendall Kunert,

PTA president at California Elementary, where kindergarten will be a

full day this fall. “They think it’s too long a day. They’d rather

have them come home and take a nap.

“Then there’s another faction that would like to see whole day and

who think [students are] ready for it if they get sufficient play

time and nap time.”

The district’s newest elementary school, Newport Coast, has had a

full-day configuration since it opened in 2001. Next year, the

students will have class from 8:35 a.m. to 2:05 p.m., Principal

Monique Van Zeebroeck said. The rest of the students go till 3:10

p.m.

Van Zeebroeck made the decision to start with the longer

kindergarten day because the facility had space for the classes, and

many students in the affluent community were coming to the school

with preschool experience and were “ready to learn,” she said.

Teachers usually do the academic portion in the morning, when the

students have the most energy, and do other activities in the

afternoon. In between, the children get quiet time they can use to

take a nap.

“One thing we learned is to have some breathing time,” she said.

“It can be very taxing, especially at the beginning of the year,

whether it’s a short day or a long day. They can get sensory overload

from learning so many things.”

Adams Elementary School in Costa Mesa needs a full-day program for

the opposite reasons Newport Coast does, PTA president Vicki Snell

said. Adams school is extending its kindergarten hours slightly, but

not going to a full day.

“I think it would be excellent,” Snell said. “Our population needs

a full-day kindergarten more than most. A lot of our students come in

and don’t speak English. They need full-day kindergarten to get

through the curriculum.”

But Eastbluff Elementary School parent Lauren Mulvaney has “no

desire whatsoever” to go to a full day when her twins start

kindergarten. She prefers the attention students get in the “Early

Bird/Late Owl” configuration at the school.

That structure splits each 20-student class into half, with some

overlap in the middle of the day. That means the students get a large

portion of the day with a 10-students-to-one-teacher ratio.

Lincoln Elementary School’s retiring principal and former

kindergarten teacher Barbara Rothman said that her school is sticking

with its Early Bird/Late Owl schedule.

“They can only absorb so much each day,” Rothman said. “The

teachers do a great job of using that instructional time very

efficiently during Early Birds and Late Owl. They need that other

block of time to learn how to get along in this world, which is so

fast-paced, and [to] make friends.”

The district is still compiling information about which schools

will go to extended or full-day kindergarten classes. Under a labor

agreement with teachers, schools may offer instructional minutes for

kindergarteners between the state minimum of 200 and a maximum of 280

minutes.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.