Kindergarten Registration —

Sandy Hook Gets First Picture Of Next Year’s Incoming Class

By Jeff White

Sandy Hook Elementary School completed its annual kindergarten registration last week – ending Friday, April 7 – and now has a clearer picture of what it can expect for next year in terms of enrollment.

According to Joanne Didonato in the school’s main office, 112 kindergartners registered last week, undergoing the usual complement of vision, hearing, and skills tests with kindergarten teachers. The school is expecting a kindergarten enrollment of 148 by the start of school next fall.

Kindergarten registration is one of those yearly traditions that in and of itself is not complicated. Yet at the Dickinson Drive school it takes extra days and some classroom juggling to pull it off.

Whereas the other elementary schools around town take two or three days for registration, Sandy Hook opted for a full week, mostly because, according to Mrs Didonato, of space constraints. When you’re expecting the number of kindergarten students that Sandy Hook is, Mrs Didonato explained, there has to be classroom space available for the tests and conferences to take place.

So, as certain classrooms became vacant due to classes away on field trips, testing and conference stations were moved to these open rooms. Other faculty members opted to give up their rooms for a time to allow the registration process to continue. Amy Rothenbucher had a large classroom to herself as she met with kindergarten teacher Deborah Ford. Mrs Ford went over basic counting and identification drills with Amy, as the young girl’s mother looked on.

Kindergarten classes at Sandy Hook last week were assigned substitute teachers so that regular kindergarten teachers could meet with next year’s students.

Opting to run registration for a week was also a decision based on the numbers of students expected to begin their Newtown school careers at Sandy Hook. With an incoming class poised to hit almost 150, Sandy Hook is remarkable among Newtown elementary schools. Currently, there are 120 kindergartners enrolled at Sandy Hook, compared to 76 at Hawley, 82 at Middle Gate, and 75 at Head O’ Meadow.

Hawley is projecting its kindergarten class to reach 94 next year. Middle Gate thinks its kindergarten students will number 102. Head O’ Meadow is predicting its class size to increase to 93.

With its large kindergarten population, Sandy Hook will add a kindergarten session next year, bringing the total to six. Two of the three remaining elementary schools will have four kindergarten sessions next year.

However, with last week’s registration numbers hovering around 112, and with a projection that 148 kindergarten students will enter Sandy Hook for the first time next fall, it remains possible that the actual enrollment numbers next year will not meet projections. But Joanne Didonato and others at the school who have seen student enrollment rise steadily over the past five years are not ready to reach such a conclusion. School officials know that registration numbers can jump dramatically during the summer months, when many new families decide to make the move to Newtown.

For their part, school officials are actively trying to get an idea of who exactly is out there in terms of kindergarten students. They have polled area nursery schools, sent home notices with current Sandy Hook students, posted messages on Channel 17. Through all those efforts, they came up with 120 possible kindergarten students for next year. That number was trimmed to 112 to take into account those students who would attend St Rose and other private schools.

Throughout the summer, many at Sandy Hook will be holding their breath to see if registration numbers will swell to meet next year’s projection.

Mrs Didonato has watched as many neighborhoods in Sandy Hook have sprouted homes, most notably the riverfront homes in Pootatuck Park, and neighborhoods around Yogananda and Mountain Manor roads. Now she points out the booming development on Bradley Road, where 10 new homes have already been built. It’s not hard to assume that many of these home will send at least one child to Sandy Hook School.

The additional session notwithstanding, next year’s kindergarten class will benefit from the portable classrooms that will be in place by the fall. This temporary facility will take in the extra fifth grade class and the two extra fourth grade classes that will be formed next year, along with another class. A kindergarten class will take up residence in one of the vacated classrooms created by the portables.

At press time, both Hawley and Middle Gate schools were in the process of completing their two-day kindergarten registration, and Head O’ Meadow School will hold its kindergarten registration April 25, 26, and 27.