Hurley School Board OKs switch to five-day pre-K

By RALPH ANSAMI

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Hurley — Looking at some small numbers for some small students, the Hurley School Board on Monday decided to extend the district’s pre-kindergarten program to five days a week for the next school year.

Board members were shocked when elementary principal Kevin Genisot presented them with projected pre-K enrollments for the next four years.

The 2018-’19 class will potentially be 20 students, with the following three years fluctuating between 19 and 23 students.

That compares with the current fourth grade class of 47 students and the fifth grade class of 39.

Genisot told the board the enrollment numbers compiled by school administrative staff member Leola Maslanka are usually very accurate.

“That’s horrible,” board president Joe Simonich, of Kimball, said when first viewing the projections.

Pre-K teacher Katie Brunell now has two classes of around 14 students each. Some students attend classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, while others go to class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

That means pre-K students routinely go four days in a row without being in school.

Brunell spends her Fridays on other assignments.

She strongly supports the five-day class for pre-K students, saying it will give her more time to teach students and help them prepare for first grade at a time when their minds absorb a great deal of information.

The programs for early students are coordinated through Cooperative Educational Services Agency 12 in Ashland and the federal Head Start program, which also offers assistance for eligible 3-year-olds.

Teacher Lindsay Stafford also said the five-day schedule would be a good move, although she added, “You don’t like to see numbers this low.”

Genisot called a five-day program a “win-win” for the students and said it wouldn’t cost the district any additional funding.

He said Sue Erickson of CESA 12 is “very supportive” of the change.

The board approved the move 5-0.

In other business Monday, the school board agreed to alter the school district’s boundaries so a couple residing in the current district can send their two children to the North Lakeland School District.

Hurley School District Administrator Chris Patritto said the Hurley district borders on the North Lakeland district in a small area where the couple lives.

It would be a 35-mile bus ride if the two children attended Hurley, as compared to a 17-mile ride to the North Lakeland district, where the mother is employed.

The Hurley School Board did not want to add that extra mileage to its bus schedule and the couple desires to send the children to the North Lakeland district, so the Hurley board agreed to alter the boundary to accommodate the family.