Kindergarten enrollment has been on the rise in the Berkeley Unified School District over the last six years. Demographic projections and other data suggest that beginning with the 2015-2016 school year, BUSD elementary school enrollment would increase by approximately 252 students.

As part of a state mandate, Transitional Kindergarten (TK) is now in full implementation for students turning five in the fall, who are no longer old enough to enter the traditional one year kindergarten program. We now have seven TK classrooms in several elementary schools.
 
After the demographic study was presented to the School Board on January 24, 2014, a Board subcommittee was formed to review the demographic projections and related data, assess school site capacity and other factors, and provide a range of both short and long-term responses to enrollment growth for review by the full Board in the fall of 2014.

The School Board will be discussing potential solutions over a period of several meetings, starting with a staff presentation on October 8th. The board meeting documents will be made public online at least 72 hours before the meeting, and will include a general outline of the issues and the schedule of board meetings set to discuss enrollment growth over a series of open meetings.

Increased services for our English Learners (EL)
In addition to the Toolbox (social-emotional) curriculum now in every K-6 classroom, and increased intervention supports and coordination in the elementary schools, the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) allocates more funding for English Language Development (ELD) teachers. Every K-12 school now has an increase in teacher staffing* with time in the school day to teach English language skills to EL students in leveled groups. This ensures each EL student receives a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or an average of 150 minutes a week) of ELD instruction.

The goal is to have a growing percentage of our EL students become "Fluent English Proficient" as measured by the California English Language Development Test (CELDT), and to have all English Learners qualify as fluent within five years (one year for each of the five development levels).

*Funding for teacher time allotted based on the number of EL students at the school.

Find out at your school about morning details!

On Friday, September 19, teachers, librarians, staff and families were transported to another place as New York Times best-selling and Coretta Scott King award-winning author Andrea Davis Pinkney held a fireside chat in the School Board Room. Ms. Pinkney is the author of more than 20 books, ranging from heartfelt historical fiction to inspiring nonfiction.  Catch a glimpse of the magic in this short clip.

The Berkeley Public Schools Fund is excited to share their new grant funding opportunity for Berkeley teachers, Friends & Family Grants.

School Board:
Wed., Oct. 8 - 7:30 pm
Wed., Oct. 22 - 7:30 pm