Westmoreland Central School

As we look forward to a new school year, I want to make you aware of how the first eight days of school will look for your kindergarten child. We have made some exciting changes to our screening process that I shared with families at our parent sessions in July. For those of you that weren't able to attend, I wanted to include this important information here, so that you can best prepare for the upcoming school year and know what to expect. 

We have affectionately titled the first 8 days of school as the "Kindergarten Switcheroo." Our kindergarten teachers, administrative team, and instructional coach have been working collaboratively and strategically to map out these days with the hopes of really getting to know your child, build meaningful relationships, set the foundation for a great school year, and learn about your child's strengths and needs across academic areas and with social-emotional development.  

Your child is assigned a home-base teacher. You should have received that teacher assignment either at the parent day in July or via a phone call from our main office. For those of your who had TBD listed, your child's home base teacher will be Mrs. Emily Lojewski, who is joining us with experience teaching both elementary general education and special education, including kindergarten! Your child's homebase teacher will be the classroom that your child attends and the teacher that he or she is with for a majority of the school day during the first 8 days. 

Over the course of 8 days, we will be building a community of over 70 kindergarten students with our 3 teachers and support staff. The group of children will all spend the mornings together, learning rules, procedures, and routines. In addition, they will be working with other children and teachers on interactive STEAM activities and hands-on learning experiences. In the afternoons, your child will attend specials and receive academic instruction in Reading, Writing, Math, Social Studies, and Science. During this time, we will be assessing students' strengths and skill level. This will allow us to get a comprehensive understanding of your child as a learner. After the first 8 days are over, your child will receive his or her classroom teacher assignment that will carry them through for the next 172 school days. 

The exciting thing about the switcheroo is that your child will get to know all 3 teachers, all of our support staff, and all of the kindergarten cohort in the first 8 days of school. This will help build our community for collaborative learning throughout the entire school year. While this is a unique concept, it has been very well planned and thought through by our team. I am confident that this is a solid approach to help us to best meet the needs of our students and build a solid foundation for the school year. 

While this is a different concept for us, I want to remind you that this experience is designed to be engaging, fun, and meaningful for your child. Our goal is to create a positive learning environment and get to know our students above and beyond the traditional screening process. At our parent sessions, parents asked great questions. Many were a bit worried about the idea of sending their child to one teacher and possibly having a "new" teacher 8 days later. I want to remind everyone that this is simply not the case. Your child will be working with all of our teachers over 8 days, and because our team has worked together intentionally, your child will be set up for success no matter which class they land in. In addition, in my conversations with parents, I have been mindful to explain that while this seems different, our children are adaptable. Because it is their kindergarten experience, it will be a new experience for them regardless of the screening process. Our goal is to create that environment where our children are happy and comfortable here, and we believe our switcheroo will help make this school an even better place to be.

Our website has a podcast about the Kindergarten switcheroo, where I go in depth to explain what it is and the WHY behind it. Feel free to listen to it. If you have any questions or I can assist in any way, please reach out to me. 

Lastly- Our Meet the Teacher Night is scheduled for Thursday, August 29th from 5:30-6:30. At this time, I will meet with kindergarten parents to discuss the logistics and basics of the school day. This will include information on arrival, dismissal, lunch/recess, health information, and general school policies and procedures.