By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays school district hopes the addition of three new kindergarten teachers this fall will mean smaller class sizes as enrollment continues to rise.
Parents will be receiving notification within the next couple of days on school placements for their kindergarten students. All but six families were able to receive their first choices, said Shanna Dinkel, assistant superintendent.
The district has 253 kindergarteners enrolled for the fall. The district had 225 kindergarten students enrolled at the same time last year. A few more students usually enroll in the fall.
Dinkel said the addition of the new teachers should mean all kindergarten sections will be at 20 students or less. Before the new teachers were added some classes were as large as 23 students.
The new kindergarten sections will be added at Roosevelt, Wilson and O'Loughlin. The school board approved the addition of the teachers earlier this year.
The schools will repurpose their computer labs into classrooms to free up enough space for the new kindergarten sections.
The tech teachers will travel to classrooms for computer instruction.
Board member Craig Pallister said he was pleased to see the district addressing kindergarten class size as it has been an issue for several years.