Manhattan Beach Unified School District to Host Kindergarten Information Day

Picture courtesy Manhattan Beach Education Foundation

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District is hosting its Annual Kindergarten Information Day designed to help incoming and new families for the 2023-2024 school year with the transition to kindergarten.

The program will take place on Saturday, January 21, at Pacific Elementary School from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. and is open to all families with a focus on incoming Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and Kindergarten students.

The Kindergarten Information Day program will provide families an opportunity to hear firsthand from the District’s elementary schools, principals, teachers, parents, and Superintendent, Dr. John Bowes. This year, the program has expanded and attendees will hear a testimonial from an elementary student.

The general information session will offer parents insight into the District’s programs, what their children should expect, and the opportunities available. After the main session, families attend breakout sessions and meet with elementary school principals for a Q&A. There will also be a session dedicated to Transitional Kindergarten. MBUSD Board President Cathey Graves says it’s important for first-time parents to know what to expect.

“We are very excited to host our Kindergarten Information Day once again this year and provide our families with the resources they need to start their child’s journey in  MBUSD. As part of the program, our teachers will share a day in the life of a kindergartener and highlight the many experiences their child can look forward to as a student in the District. This is a very exciting and nervous time for parents and students and we want to make sure we are there to support them from the beginning,” said MBUSD Board President Cathey Graves.

These types of events are even more important to the District due to a law Governor Gavin Newsom signed in 2021 that requires any school district operating a kindergarten to also provide a Transitional Kindergarten program. This means phasing in Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK) at California schools until it includes all of the state’s 4-year-olds by the 2025-26 school year.  

For the 2023-2024 school, students who turn five on or between September 2, 2023 – April 2, 2024, will be eligible to enroll in a TK program.  This year is the first time that Transitional Kindergarten classes are being offered at all five MBUSD elementary school sites to accommodate the UTK program.

All children who will be five years old as of September 1, 2023, are eligible to enroll in Kindergarten.

“Manhattan Beach Unified School District (MBUSD) is a destination district that for decades has had a true focus on maximizing the academic success of all of our students and the whole child. When families attend our Kindergarten Information Day they will have the opportunity to see and hear from the community we call MBUSD. Our principals, teachers, and all of our support staff are focused on delivering academic excellence and fostering a climate of care,” said MBUSD Superintendent, Dr. John Bowes. “I look forward to meeting our incoming families and begin building that relationship as their children will be with us for the next 13-14 years.”

“We look forward to Kindergarten Information Day because it gives us a chance to help parents understand what MBUSD is all about. This school year has been a great time for the District. We have a lot of facility projects near completion, our programs across primary and secondary are growing, and, most importantly, we want new families to know that our principals and teachers work hard to get to know each student as an individual, that we have a strong and supportive school community, and that we have a wide range of resources to help us to meet the needs of each student,” said MBUSD Deputy Superintendent, Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard.

New student enrollment begins on January 23, 2023. Enrollment is a two-step process, including both an online registration form and an in-person document submission component. MBUSD Inter-District attendance permit applications, for students in grades TK-12 who reside outside the attendance boundaries of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District (MBUSD) and seek to be enrolled in the District, are already being accepted by the District.

Most recently, MBUSD elementary schools received the California Distinguished Schools title. MBUSD serves nearly 5,900 students. To find all MBUSD enrollment information, visit www.mbusd.org/enroll/.

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