Numbers high for Redkey kindergarten?

REDKEY - An issue of overcrowding created several years ago by the creation of full-day kindergarten throughout Jay Schools could be repeated next year for students entering school here for the first time.

Since full-day kindergarten was implemented two years ago, several kindergarten students from the Redkey area have been bused each year to Westlawn Elementary School in Dunkirk in an attempt to balance enrollment numbers.

That could be the case again for the 2010-11 school year, Redkey Elementary School principal Tom Jerles said this week.

But any decision on which students will be attending classes in Dunkirk won't be made until after kindergarten round-up in April.

Jerles said that 24 pre-enrollment sheets for students expecting to be enrolled in kindergarten at Redkey have been received. Twenty-four is the maximum established by the corporation to be enrolled for kindergarten at Redkey.

And if the number of enrolled students increases, as expected, Jerles says that he will talk personally with parents of students and try to find "volunteers" to attend in Dunkirk.

He says that in the past two years, he has been fortunate that he has found parents willing to make the one-year switch.

Jerles said that any student enrolled through the official kindergarten round-up on Tuesday, April 6 (8:30 a.m.) will be considered for attendance at Redkey.

Wood Barwick, assistant superintendent of Jay Schools, said this week that students from Redkey who are asked to attend kindergarten at Westlawn will return to Redkey for the remainder of their elementary schooling.

The situation with kindergarten enrollment is unique to Redkey within the Jay School Corporation.

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