Ellwood City Area School District Board Votes to Revise Kindergarten Admission Policy

The Ellwood City Area School District Board voted to revise policy 201 during Thursday night’s meeting.

A unanimous vote will put the revisions on display until the next board meeting where they will then be recommended for approval.

The discussion regarding kindergarten admission has been ongoing since November by parent Megan Jones whosaid 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 and that there was not an option for evaluation.

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 during Monday’s agenda meeting that the policy committee met with district administrators to discuss options and develop a proposed set of guidelines.

In the revised version of the policy, 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.

Numerous board members suggested changing the date to Sept 1 for all admission as well as keeping the criteria for evaluation for exceptions.

This option or others could be considered at the Board’s March meeting.