At its Thursday, April 21 meeting, the Great Expectations School (GES) school board decided to add a second section of kindergarten for next year. The decision was not made lightly, according to GES Director Peter James, but the school is excited about the change.
Before the school board decision, a letter went out to GES families informing them of the possibility of adding a second kindergarten classroom for 2016- 2017.
James, who has served as director since 2005, reminded parents that siblings of students enrolled at GES get the first chance at attending the same school as their brothers or sisters. James said a high number of GES siblings had expressed “tremendous interest,” as had some new families.
He said at that time GES had 18 applications for next year’s kindergarten.
James said GES did not want to turn away new families that may want to enroll their child at GES. However, he and the GES school board also did not want to undermine neighboring Cook County Schools – ISD 166’s ability to offer two kindergarten sections at Sawtooth Elementary, as that school had planned.
James said because of the high number of five-year old children in the county (a demographic anomaly, he noted), he didn’t think it would be a problem. “We have had conversations with ISD166 representatives to ensure we did not create a problem for Sawtooth’s plans for two elementary sections.”
But, James asked parents, was GES ready for an expansion? He wrote, “We need to decide if this is the best way to continue fulfilling the school’s mission to develop an effective learning community and serve the needs of individual students.
“We are anticipating adding a teacher and space to allow effective collaboration and interaction between the two classes, and will continue supporting this bubble of students as they work their way through GES.”
In answer to how an additional kindergarten would impact school funding, James said, “There is no apparent financial benefit or burden to expanding in this way. In fact, there is no clear good or bad option available, just different trade-offs.”
With the decision to add another kindergarten class, James said the board also authorized the search for an additional teacher and exploration of facility options.
GES, a free, public charter school opened in August 2003 in temporary space at the Cook County Community Center. The school moved to its current location in 2006 and an addition for a stand-alone kindergarten was added in 2012.
GES serves families of students in kindergarten through eighth grade in Cook County.
Leave a Reply