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Mary Collins has been teaching kindergarten for 15 years, and she still gets a thrill from it.
“Kindergarten is so awesome,” she said, as her 25 charges sat patiently waiting for her to tell them what to do next. “They come here so eager to learn.”
Superintendent Tony Watlington visited Collins, other educators, and students at Rhawnhurst Elementary School in Northeast Philadelphia Tuesday to urge families to enroll their children in kindergarten. Registration started Tuesday and ends May 31.
Kindergarten is not mandated in Pennsylvania, as it is in several other states. Watlington said that sends the wrong message and requires schools to recruit students for kindergarten more actively. He said that “lots of research” has shown kindergarten’s value. In addition, some states are pushing universal prekindergarten, he said, but Pennsylvania is not among them.
“I wish we would,” he said.
Enrollment in Philadelphia district kindergarten classes this year is about 8,300 students, which is still below what it was before the pandemic, when it reached a peak of more than 12,000. Another 10,500 students are enrolled in district-run pre-K programs.
Collins, who has also taught first and second grades in her 30-year career, described her students’ journey from not knowing letters to being able to read and even write sentences.
“They start with the alphabet,” she said, and learn that the letters have sounds. “And from sounds we get words, then sentences, and then I see my babies read,” she said.
From there comes writing, she said, adding that in math, “they’re also learning to count to 100, to celebrate 100 days of school.”
In September, “they came in dependent, and now they’re independent,” she said, surveying the room. “They’ll always remember what they learned in kindergarten.”
The district’s deputy chief for early childhood education, Diane Castelbuono, said that families can register their child online or in person. To be eligible, children must turn 5 years old by Sept. 1.
While the official enrollment window ends on May 31 for planning purposes, families can register later if their circumstances change.
But some things don’t change. Rhawnhurst Principal Joy Kingwood-Ellis took Watlington and Board of Education Vice President Sarah-Ashey Andrews to Collins’ room, where the superintendent asked the students “who likes the snow?”
All the little hands shot up in the air.
Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.
