C-G-D to have four kindergarten classrooms

Last week, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows schools began advertising for an additional kindergarten teacher. With expected enrollment numbers collected during school registration on August 9, the three existing kindergarten classes would have numbered 27, 27, and 28 students—a very high number for one teacher and one assistant per classroom to handle, and too high for current classroom space.

While C-G-D Elementary School Principal Tricia Rosendahl later found that two of the expected students had moved, bringing total kindergarten enrollment down to 80, space for the students was still a problem. The solution? Use a small room off the library, previously the ICN (Iowa Communications Network) room, for a class of 14, leaving the other three kindergarten classes with 22 students each.

“We are very very thankful that we could add another kindergarten section,” Rosendahl said Monday night to the C-G-D school board. “It would be a lot of bodies with the needs of our students.”

In addition to finding a new teacher on short notice, the school is also wrestling how to fit an additional art, music, and physical education class into the school schedule.

For the full story, see the August 17 edition of the Monitor.