Teachers report stronger literacy, stamina and classroom practice in first year of full‑day kindergarten

District staff presented DIBBELS screening snapshots showing incoming kindergarten composite scores around 48–52% with stronger mid‑to‑end‑of‑year gains this cohort. The superintendent’s team said the numbers are preliminary and will be tracked as the cohort moves into first grade.

Kindergarten teachers emphasized instructional benefits of a full‑day schedule. Jennifer D'Angelo, a Goodno Elementary kindergarten teacher, said full‑day structures let teachers "think of almost everything" needed to support five‑ and six‑year‑olds and praised a play‑based 'play lab' for social skill development. Taylor Boltner, who taught in both half‑day and full‑day models, said students rapidly increased stamina—"two weeks after the first day of school that they were rocking and rolling"—and that class sizes dropped in some buildings (one teacher reported having 18 students this year versus 47 split across morning and afternoon sections previously), allowing more targeted instruction.

Teachers credited structured literacy training and interventions for stronger phonemic awareness and nonsense‑word decoding scores. They described Second Step lessons integrated into the kindergarten day and said short weekly lessons provide teachable moments throughout the week. District staff said they will continue to collect data and report back on how this kindergarten cohort performs in first grade.

No formal action was taken; staff recommended ongoing monitoring and teacher collaboration to maintain fidelity as the program expands.