Curriculum committee updates: full-day kindergarten pilot, $1M PDE-linked dual-enrollment grant, and middle-school wellness revisions

At its Aug. 4 meeting, the Pennridge School District curriculum committee reviewed several program-level updates: progress on full-day kindergarten, a potential dual-enrollment expansion tied to a $1 million grant to Bucks County Community College and the completion of a multi-year revision of the middle-school wellness curriculum.

Full-day kindergarten pilot: Jennifer Bloom, director of teaching, learning and assessment, reported enrollment counts for the district's full-day kindergarten pilot as of Aug. 4. Bloom said most full-day sections are at 25 students; she noted Divers (site name in district materials) was at 24 students with no wait list. Bloom and principals reported some movement on wait lists: a Sellersville afternoon section initially showed three students but, per principal communication reported in the meeting, that class had seven students as of a more recent check. Bloom cautioned that August registrations often change as bus routes and family choices finalize, and she said the pilot committee will meet Oct. 24 to perform a SWOT analysis and plan observations and site visits.

Kindergarten STEM: The committee discussed, but did not implement, a STEM add-on for the full-day kindergarten pilot. Staff said early work had been done but that the program lacked finalized instructor, budget and equity plans and that introducing the STEM module in one cohort while leaving half-day students without comparable programming would raise equity concerns. Instead, staff will research kindergarten STEM models, schedule site visits between October and December and form a committee to recommend a sustainable implementation for the 2026-27 school year.

Dual-enrollment grant with Bucks County Community College: Bloom described a Pennsylvania Department of Education-related opportunity managed by Bucks County Community College. The college received a $1,000,000 award and proposed making some reduced-cost or free college-credit opportunities available to Pennridge students. Bloom said Bucks County Community College indicated it could provide a set of college-credit seats for Pennridge students (staff cited figures verbally as program options but said final allocation and selection criteria remain under discussion). Bloom and district staff will meet with college representatives on Sept. 5 to set selection criteria, including potential priority for economically disadvantaged students, and to decide whether to use a limited number of fully funded seats this year or a broader reduced-cost offering that could reach many more students. Existing dual-enrollment arrangements with Bucks include AP English Literature, Child Development II and College Algebra; the district is exploring adding public speaking and AP psychology pending college approval.

Middle-school wellness curriculum: Curriculum staff reported completion of a long-running wellness curriculum revision at the middle-school level and said the materials are live in Atlas (the district's curriculum platform). Revisions reduce redundancy across grades and reallocate instructional time (for example, moving some first-aid content to a grade where it aligns with anatomy or lab activities). The staff presenter said the revision emphasizes practical skills (stress management, de-escalation, refusal skills and personal advocacy) and aligns national SHAPE standards where appropriate while keeping Pennsylvania state standards where necessary. The committee also discussed CPR/AED training and the district's investment in mannequins and AED drills for implementation.

Ending: Committee members commended the work, asked staff to continue site visits for the kindergarten STEM research and to return with proposed selection criteria and timelines for the dual-enrollment grant. The committee will bring updates back to the board as details are finalized.