Twenty-seven left waiting for full-day kindergarten spots

Red tape, little-understood tax rules and a growing number of families in the Norkirk neighborhood are gumming up full-day kindergarten enrollments at Peter Kirk Elementary, school officials are saying.

Space in full-day kindergarten classes at the school this coming fall quickly filled during the March registration period, said Kathryn Reith, Lake Washington School District director of communications. She said those who couldn’t get in were offered half-day places at Peter Kirk and put on a waiting list. The waiting list is now at 27 children and growing.

Reith said the district is unsure if the squeeze will continue, or if this is a one-time problem.

“We may have a trend,” Reith said, “But we can’t call it that until we have at least another year under our belts … It could be a bubble.”

For several years now, Peter Kirk Elementary has offered two full-day kindergarten classes to a slowly dwindling number of families who wanted it. But recent redevelopment along the school’s southern boundary and dozens of brand new or rebuilt houses have brought an unexpected influx of young children into the area.

Lake Washington PTSA president Wendy DeLong said kindergarten registration is up this year throughout the district. She said the trend could be from parents using all-day kindergarten in lieu of day care, since most parents both work full-time.

“The kids have got to go someplace,” she said. “The parents would rather see the children continue the progress they’re making in an educational setting instead of being shuttled around in the middle of the day.”

With two portable classrooms alongside the main buildings, Peter Kirk principal Sandra Dennehy said the school has been able to accommodate its current enrollment of just over 550 students. Full-day kindergarten, however, isn’t a mandated part of the public school curriculum. Parents must pay additional fees — as high as $2,550 per student — for full-day, and there isn’t always space.

“We would love to (accommodate every parent who wants full-day kindergarten),” Dennehy said, “But we truly don’t have the space.”

Two other Kirkland elementary schools (Lakeview Elementary and Juanita Elementary) have fall waiting lists of five families each, but neither is considered a problem since normal turnover will likely open up additional all-day places, Reith said.

For several years, the district has offered optional full-day kindergarten dependent on space. With enrollments flat overall and a modernization bond recently approved to fund the rehabilitation of older school properties, the district feels it is well positioned to maintain facilities for its 23,558 students. But until Washington state legislators mandate it, Kirkland’s 1,693 kindergartners are only guaranteed a half-day.

Presently, 988 of them are enrolled full-time.

Reached at a school district function last week, state Sen. Eric Oemig, D-Kirkland, blamed the squeeze on a levy cap and an “arbitrary and irrational” educational-funding structure that is tying the district’s hands.

“There’s a trend towards full-time,” Oemig said. “The question is, how do we fund it?”

Until a state solution is found, all-day kindergarten spots at Kirkland schools will remain at a premium.

“When we see the money, then we’ll do it,” Reith said. “We can’t make plans on what the legislature might or might not do.”