MB About Town: Kindergarten Information Day
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District is hosting its Annual Kindergarten Information Day to help incoming and new families for the 2023-2024 school year with the transition to kindergarten.
The program will take place Saturday, January 21, at Pacific Elementary School from 9 to 11 a.m. and is open to all families with a focus on incoming Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and Kindergarten students. The day will provide families an opportunity to hear from the District’s elementary schools, principals, teachers, parents, and MBUSD Superintendent Dr. John Bowes.
The general information session will offer parents insight into the district’s programs. After the main session, families will 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 and provide our families with the resources they need to start their child’s journey in MBUSD,” Graves said. “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.”
These types of events are even more important 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.
New student enrollment begins on January 23, 2023. ER