In order to prepare new kindergarten students for their educational careers in a more effective and collaborative way, four academies are being built around Perry Township. These buildings will only educate kindergarteners and Jody Matthews, principal of Homecroft Elementary, thinks that this is the, “most effective way… to more forward with education.”

“I know all four of (the principals of the new schools) are going to do a great job of putting that vision out there of what we want for our kindergarten students,” said Matthews.

The academies cost $50 million total to make, covered by a tax referendum approved in a vote, and will be ready to go July 2017 for that school year.The information about registration for the schools will be on the the MSDPT website next month, and the location of which school the student shall attend depends on his or her address. If the student has a sibling, the school where the kindergartener will attend will not be based where the student’s sibling is attending.  

Matthews also knows that every year they receive students at all different levels of learning, some who know how to read in kindergarten and some that are still getting through the alphabet. With the academies, all the students can be prepared at the same level going into first grade, at whatever school they choose. The goal of these academies is to create a sense of teachers collaboration since they are all going to be teaching the same thing, allowing themselves to then better the students overall.

The teachers who are going to teach at the schools have already been notified of their relocation because majority of them are already teaching in the district. Many of the kindergarten teachers at Homecroft will be placed there, but Matthews feels confident in all of them because not only will the children develop a community among themselves, but he says it “allows teachers to collaborate” as well.

Homecroft kindergarten teacher Julie Zachary is going to be one of the future teachers at the Homecroft kindergarten academy and she is “excited to have a new adventure.” Zachary believes the academies can bring the best out of teacher collaboration and show the love they all have for kindergarteners. Also with the school specializing in a single grade level, the teachers can develop professionally rather than the kindergarten-five curriculum that they have at the elementary schools.