Dixon Public Schools create new kindergarten program to address behavioral issues at Washington Elementary

Dixon Public Schools will kick off a new transitional kindergarten program at the start of the 2025-26 school year.

The program was developed in response to kindergarten students’ increasing behavioral issues at Washington Elementary School that parents and staff described as “violent.” Those issues quickly became overwhelming for the staff and the situation was brought to the school board’s attention at an emotional meeting Oct. 16, 2024.

[ School staff, parents: Dixon’s Washington teachers overwhelmed by kindergarteners’ ‘violent’ behavior ]

“Teachers’ rooms are being destroyed, chairs or other objects thrown, tables flipped, bins dumped and items broken, all while trying to teach 20-plus students,” Maria Peterson, a Washington Elementary kindergarten teacher, told the board Oct. 16.

“Teachers and teacher assistants are being hit by chairs and other objects. They’re being hit by students, kicked, scratched, spit on, bit and cursed at. The other students in the classroom are unfortunately witnessing it all,” Peterson said.

Sasha Gomes, a secretary and parent of a kindergartener at Washington, said during that meeting that her son’s “classmates have been bitten, hit and pinched.”

“I would have never imagined a preschool through first-grade school would be anything like this. I didn’t expect [my son’s] experience to be so violent,” Gomes said.

Following that meeting, school board members and administrators visited Washington to see firsthand the issues that were occurring. They identified the majority of behaviors to be developmental and emotional maturity issues in students who are 5 years old.

“This isn’t a punishment issue. These kids need to learn, and they need to learn that they’re safe at school, and most of them don’t understand that right now,” school board member Melissa Gates said in a special meeting Oct. 23, 2024.

The new program, approved by the board at its June 25 meeting, is designed to teach them that.

“We’re trying to take some of the troubles we had last year and just make some changes to try to make things better. I think if everything’s the same every year, you’re just going to have the same problems,” Washington Principal Kellie Glenn said.

“I don’t want them [students] to not like school in kindergarten. This should be the time they come to school, they have fun, they’re learning. They’re learning what school is, and if it’s that much of a struggle, like we have to figure something out,” Glenn said.

TK is a two-year program where students will start in the TK classroom at Washington and be enrolled in a traditional kindergarten classroom the following year, Glenn said.

One current kindergarten class has been converted to the TK room. It’ll be taught by a Washington kindergarten teacher, have one paraprofessional and a maximum of 15 students, according to the program overview.

The TK class will be a full day from 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. and will include 25 minutes of rest or nap time, busing, lunch, gym and recess. The focus will be on developing independence, social emotional regulation and problem-solving skills – putting students in a position to be ready for kindergarten the following school year, according to the program overview.

The goal of the program is that its students will enter kindergarten with skills that are above their classmates and “hopefully will be a leader,” Glenn said.

Qualifiers for entry into the program include low academics and social emotional skills on kindergarten screenings, teacher recommendations and late summer birthdays, but it’s not for those with Individualized Education Programs or those with “extreme behaviors,” Glenn said.

Students “that have IEPs already, they’ll be in a traditional class with the supports that they need there, because our TK teacher isn’t a special education teacher,” Glenn said.

“I think it’ll be a good thing for that small group of kids” who don’t turn 5 until late summer because “we really didn’t have a program for those kids. They were just put into kindergarten because that’s what the policy was,” Glenn said.

Entry into or exit out of the program will be flexible and students that are struggling can be transferred in during the year or transferred out if they begin showing improvement, Glenn said.

The school also needs permission from parents to enroll a child in TK “because, essentially, we’re saying they’re gonna have to do kindergarten twice,” Glenn said.

Most of the parents Glenn said that she spoke to were concerned about their children being behind.

She explained to them that it’s an opportunity for their kids to spend “another year getting those social skills ready for them to come into kindergarten, so that they’re academically ready to learn. We see a huge difference from just kindergarten to first grade,” Glenn said.

“In the long run, as an adult, does it really matter whether you’re 17, 18 or 19 when you graduate from high school? But whether that kid’s confident all the way along does matter,” school board president Linda Wegner said.

If a parent does decide not to enroll their child into TK, they’ll be in traditional kindergarten “and these kids will still be on our radar,” Glenn said.