Features

Over the years, anxious parents taking the first step toward admitting their children to school have found a guiding light in the Berkeley Unified School District’s Kindergarten Fair. 

In its twelfth year, the fair will be hosted by LeConte Elementary School on Russell Street this Saturday. 

The event familiarizes parents with district-wide curricula and the assignment system and introduces them to parent representatives from all eleven elementary schools as well as child-care providers. 

“It’s the district’s way of introducing the elementary schools to parents,” said LeConte principal Cheryl Wilson.  

“It’s pretty much the parents and the PTA who take charge but LeConte will have teachers from our Farming Garden who will talk to people about the program. I will help set up a visual representation to show parents why they would want to choose LeConte for their child,” Wilson said.  

BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan said Francisco Martinez, BUSD’s Manager for Attendance and Enrollment, would also be giving a presentation at the fair. 

“Francisco is in charge of calculating the enrollment numbers every school year, and his predictions have always been 99 percent accurate,” Coplan said. 

Matinez told the Planet that he expected 600 to 620 students to enroll in kindergarten this year. 

“Last year we had an enrollment of 610, five years ago it was 670. There is really no specific pattern to explain this. We use statistical analysis to help us calculate.” 

With 438 students, Thousand Oaks has the largest enrollment. Cragmont comes in next with 400, followed by Malcolm X (382) and LeConte (314). 

“Our largest is probably the average in other districts, but Berkeley built smaller schools because that was what the community needed at the time,” said Coplan. 

Martinez added that the fair allowed families to go around and get a flavor of each of the schools which helped them to select the top three schools of their choice.  

“Sometimes parents realize that the things they have been hearing about a particular school is not always correct. It really helps that parents get to interact with other parents,” he said. 

Marie Joiner, student admissions specialist for the office of admissions at the BUSD, said that the fair also attracted returning parents who haven’t had much exposure to the school district. 

“Last time 140 families signed up for the fair,” she said. “Parents are interested to know about how they should apply, the transport options and the after school and enrichment programs available. Instead of going to each school individually, this is a great way of learning about them.” 

The deadline for submitting the form with the top three school choices is Feb. 9, after which the computer makes the final selection based on a variety of demographic criteria such as race, income, and parents’ education.  

“Planning for school is exciting for families and the fair is a lot of fun for the kids as well,” Joiner said. 

“It’s interesting to see the schools competing with each other but at the same time it’s also a rare opportunity for them to be together under the same roof,” Coplan said. 

Cary Sanders, PTA president at LeConte said that parents were preparing hard to host the fair on Saturday.  

“The PTA is organizing the tables and the displays. There will be other PTAs as well. We are planning to take people around the school and show them the materials and some of the exciting programs,” Sanders said. 

“We continue to have a farming garden program and the cooking/nutrition program goes hand in hand with that. There is also a two-way immersion program in Spanish which kids love. Our job is to take those and communicate them to parents.” 

Sanders added that all the schools were focusing on narrowing the achievement gap. 

“There might be a little competition at the fair but we are all unified overall. Our main goal is to let people know that the Berkeley Public School system works and that it has great programs,” she said.