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u.s. news Diamars 15 Juni 2021

Schools across US brace for surge of kindergartners in fall

(AP) - School districts across the pandemic for years.
the United States are hiring ad-
ditional teachers in anticipation Albuquerque Public Schools Super-
of what will be one of the largest intendent Scott Elder said children
kindergarten classes ever as en- who skipped kindergarten or were
rollment rebounds following the homeschooled last year may be a bit
coronavirus pandemic. behind on their numbers and let-
ters. The same goes for the kids who
As they await the arrival next fall of were enrolled and studied online, but
students who sat out the current couldn’t always connect or get sup-
school year, educators are also bracing port from parents.
for many students to be less prepared
than usual due to lower preschool at- “When people talk about learning
tendance rates. loss and kids being behind, it won’t
be a quick solution. That’s going to
“The job of the kindergarten teacher be a multi-year solution, but it will be
just got a lot harder,” said Steven Bar- solved,” Elder said.
nett, senior co-director of the Na-
tional Institute for Early Education In Connecticut, some school districts
Research at Rutgers University. He are targeting summer programs at in-
coauthored a report that found that coming kindergartners who missed
the number of 4-year-olds participat- allergies and her immune system al- anticipating nearly 22% more kinder- out on preschool. Irene Parisi, the
ing in preschool fell from 71% before ready was in overdrive. “We wanted gartners than in fall 2020. The district state’s chief academic officer, said in
the pandemic to 54% during the pan- to make sure that as a family we were plans to do testing over the summer an interview that districts are also us-
demic, with poor children much less being smart and being safe.” to identify any special needs that have ing federal relief money to add staff to
likely to attend in-person. been missed, such as vision problems help out and training them that they
Neu, who works in retail in Wichita, and speech delays, said Lori Erickson, need to adjust their expectations.
Kindergarten is not required in most Kansas, cooked with her daughters, a veteran kindergarten teacher who
states, and in normal times, parents bought educational workbooks and now coordinates the district’s pre- “It is important that teachers realize
sometimes “red-shirt” children who played educational games with them. kindergarten program. that the routines are going to be dif-
would be young for their kindergar- She said she has no regrets but is ap- ferent than perhaps what you may
ten class to give them an extra year of prehensive about the burden facing She said the district also just learned have expected of learners in the past,”
developmental readiness. This year, kindergarten teachers. it is getting more money to expand she said.
even children nowhere near the cut- its jumpstart to kindergarten summer
off age were held out of school be- “I would be really concerned about program, which will include a field In the 900-student Freeman School
cause of health concerns and the dis- stress and just the teacher getting ev- trip to a strawberry patch and visits District in Rockford, Washington,
ruptions caused by the pandemic. erything done with a big class,” she from a dancer and painter. Superintendent Randy Russell just
said. hired a new teacher as the district
Among them was the daughter of “The biggest thing on our radar is prepares to add a third kindergar-
Christina Neu, who held her back With large amounts of federal relief recognizing the trauma that has hap- ten class. He said about one-third of
even though her daughter has a De- money available, school districts are pened,” she said, adding that the the preschoolers and kindergarten-
cember birthday and already would taking a range of approaches to pre- district has various staffers “who are ers in the mostly rural district about
be relatively old for her class because pare. ready to rumble.” 15 miles (24.14 kilometers) south of
the entry cutoff is the end of August. Spokane skipped this school year and
Across Kansas, kindergarten enroll- In Orange County, Florida, there are It remains uncertain just how big that other districts around the region
ment fell by nearly 9%. estimates that the incoming kinder- kindergarten classes will be in the fall. experienced similar drops.
garten class will be 17% bigger than The increase could be offset by par-
“There was a little bit of fear, not in fall 2020 and officials are plan- ents who decide to wait an extra year But the upcoming school year has
wanting her to have to deal with kind ning a 5 1/2 week transition program to send 5-year-olds or opt for home- him encouraged: “Even if you do
of an unknown there,” Neu said, this summer at some of its neediest schooling because of safety concerns. have a gap, it is going to be closed
adding that her eldest daughter, who schools. pretty quickly. We are just excited that
is 8, had just been diagnosed before Regardless, education leaders say they we are going to get the kids back.”
the pandemic with 26 different food In Minnesota, the St. Paul district is expect to be addressing the effects of

Illinois chemical plant explosion, fires prompt evacuations

(AP) — An explosion at a grease in the Americas. that the wind pushed into will be working with local termine what happened and
northern Illinois chemi- the community. Wilson said authorities and with our own identify any corrective ac-
cal plant Monday morn- Following reports that the those fires were caused by risk management team to de- tions,” it said.
ing sparked massive fires plumes of smoke were so big burning pieces of cardboard
that sent flames and huge they were being picked up on boxes and chunks of wooden
plumes of thick black weather radar, the Rockton pallets, not chemicals falling
smoke high into the air Police Department posted from the sky.
and debris raining onto an alert at 8:46 a.m. warning
the ground, prompting that fire officials had ordered Trisha Diduch, the planning
evacuations. a mandatory evacuation near and development administra-
the plant. It told people to tor for Rockton, said she esti-
After 7 a.m., emergency crews evacuate homes and busi- mates about 1,000 people are
rushed to the scene of the fire nesses, and to await further affected by the 1-mile radius
near Rockton, northwest of instructions. evacuation order, she said.
Chicago, at Chemtool Inc., a
company that manufactures Crews from the 40 or so fire There were no immediate re-
lubricants, grease products departments that responded ports of injuries.
and other fluids, and is, ac- to the blaze were fanning out
cording to the company, to respond to spot fires, grass “We do not yet know what
the largest manufacturer of fires, and burning debris caused this incident, but we