Ellwood City School Board Continues Consideration of Kindergarten Admission

The Ellwood City Area School District Board is set to consider a change to Policy 201 during its Thursday voting meeting.

The vote regarding kindergarten admission was tabled during the January 21st meeting because the board wanted further input and consideration from the administration as to whether a viable process to evaluate students for early entry could be developed and implemented. After initial review, the administration, during the board’s January 13 committee meeting, recommended that the policy should remain as is, but not all board members agree with that assessment.

During the January 21 meeting, Board President Renee Pitrelli and directors Barbara Wilson, Jean Biehls, and Kathleen McCommons suggested an option for evaluation of students based on a certain set of criteria. McCommons said she believes the administration and school psychologists are fully capable of developing the criteria as well as evaluating the students.

Wilson and McCommons reported that since that January meeting, the policy committee met with district administrators to discuss options and develop a proposed set of guidelines. In order for a child to be considered for an evaluation for early entry they would have to meet the following criteria:

• Completed two years of preschool
• Provide a letter of recommendation from the preschool
• Reach age 5 between August 15-September 1

The parent will also have had to submit a letter requesting their child be considered for early admission by December 1.

Once those are submitted, The parent will need to seek an independent evaluation and after that the report will be evaluated by a team of administrators and kindergarten teachers.

School Director Jennifer Tomon disagrees with the move to consider changing the policy and stated that the board just passed the policy. She said the policy should not be changed to make special arrangements for one student.

“It’s a slippery slope,” Tomon said insisting that if changes are made for one student, parents could expect further changes or exceptions in the future opening up the policy to constant change.

Director Barbara Wilson said that although she recognizes that the board just recently passed the policy—one that she at the time of its passing supported—that it was a mistake. She said she believes given the situation brought forth in November by parent Megan Jones is one that provided an example of what should be an exception to the rule.

“We passed a black and white policy,” Wilson said. “And that’s not what children are.”

Jones, who has attended numerous meetings since November said previously that she was disappointed to learn that her child who has already invested two years into preschool would not make the August 15 cutoff for kindergarten registration. She said her daughter will turn 5 on August 23, just days after the cutoff. Jones said at the November meeting that she called other school districts in the county asking about their kindergarten admission procedures and was told that the cut off date is September 1st and was told that if a parent feels a child is ready a parent can have them evaluated for admission consideration. She said she was not given that option when she called the Ellwood City Area School District.

The current policy, passed in July 2019, by the board states: “A child is eligible for admission to kindergarten if s/he has attained the age of five (5) years on or before August 15 of that year.”

A copy of the policy can be found by clicking here.