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Virgin Valley Elementary proposes kindergarten boot camp, asks city to consider grant funding
Summary
Virgin Valley Elementary principal and assistant principal outlined a three-phase kindergarten 'boot camp' to identify and support incoming kindergartners and requested city grant support; staff and board members raised timing and budget questions and asked that grant proposals be added to the next meeting agenda.
Virgin Valley Elementary School Principal Matt Bennett and Assistant Principal Vanessa Moreno Solis said the school will pilot a three-phase kindergarten “boot camp” that begins April 28 and would use summer programming and an early assessment to identify students needing extra support.
The proposal is intended to catch incoming kindergarten students early so teachers can provide targeted help in literacy, fine motor skills and social-emotional learning before the regular school year. “So April 28, we are going to kick off a kindergarten boot camp,” Assistant Principal Vanessa Moreno Solis said, describing an on‑site event on a staff development day to enroll children, run screening rotations and sign up families for summer follow‑up sessions.
The program would run in three phases: an on‑site spring boot camp with rotations for letters, numbers, colors and fine motor practice; a small-sample summer bridge (the school noted “no more than 15 students” for intensive 14‑day sessions); and use of Nevada’s new kindergarten entry assessment (KEA) so teachers have academic and social‑emotional data at the start of the year. “It’s called the kindergarten entry assessment,” Moreno Solis said, adding the KEA covers multiple objectives and that teachers have up to 30 days to finalize the social‑emotional portion.
School leaders described operational details: the April 28 session will be held on a staff development day so staff are available to enroll children (the school will have laptops on site for registration), and summer bridge sessions would run roughly 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for about 14 days. Moreno Solis said the school would invite the most‑at‑risk children for the summer bridge and provide take‑home activities for families.
Board members and staff discussed where startup funding would come from. A board member cautioned that city funds would not be available until the next fiscal year: “the funds wouldn't be dispersed until the next fiscal year, July first,” the board member said. Another board member noted a discretionary pool for schools that staff had described as “a pool of $85,000” (staff later told the board the adopted budget showed $75,000) and urged principals to coordinate so money is fully used.
School leaders said the immediate ask is for start‑up funding so summer work can begin in June; they estimated the request at “about 14” (amount not specified clearly in the transcript). Board members asked staff to bring grant proposals back for approval: a board member asked to “officially request that we put that on the next agenda” so proposals can be reviewed during upcoming budget meetings.
Why it matters: principals said early identification would reduce the amount of time kindergarteners spend relearning routines at the start of school and help target interventions where children show weak fine motor or social‑emotional skills. The school framed the effort as a way to reduce early barriers to learning and to reduce disruption during the first weeks of classes.
Next steps and timing: board members said the city’s budget meetings are in early March, and one board member asked staff to have grant packages ready so the board can consider them at the next CAB meeting. School leaders also noted implementation details that will depend on whether funds are available before July or must wait for the next fiscal year.
