Burbank Unified School District holds its annual Kindergarten Parent Meeting on Thursday, January 23, at the Burbank Adult School auditorium. Dr. Tom Kissinger, Director of Elementary Education for the district, will present hourly programs throughout the day in English, Armenian and Spanish. The meeting will cover a range of information about the district’s Traditional Kindergarten program, as well as the Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and Spanish Immersion Kindergarten classes.
The same program will be presented hourly as follows: 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. English, 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. Spanish, 11:00 to 12:00 p.m. English, 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Spanish, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Armenian, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. English and 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Spanish.
The Spanish Immersion Kindergarten program, held at the Disney Elementary site, debuted for the 2013-14 school year and feedback has been very positive. District officials are considering the possibility of adding an additional Spanish Immersion Kindergarten class in the coming school year. In Kindergarten, 80% of the teaching is in Spanish and 20% in English.
The class reaches 50% Spanish and 50% English instruction by fourth grade. BUSD encourages more native Spanish-speakers to apply for the Spanish Immersion Kindergarten, as Language Arts is taught in English and the English Language Learners program is available for those children requiring more English language development. An additional meeting focusing on the Spanish Immersion program will be held on February 10 and 11 at the district office.
District officials are considering a plan to add more elementary teachers to reduce class sizes in grades K-3 in the coming years. Currently, the Kindergarten class size is 28 children to one teacher, but BUSD is discussing measures to make that ratio 26:1 for the 2014-2015 school year.
Enrollment for the 2014-15 Kindergarten program begins February 3. The Burbank Adult School is located at 3811 Allan Avenue, near Hollywood Way. More information can be found on the district’s website at http://www.burbankusd.org/.
