Idaho Falls to provide all-day kindergarten program

IDAHO FALLS — The Idaho Falls School District will provide a fee-based, all-day kindergarten program at Sunnyside Elementary School this fall.

In May, 25 Sunnyside parents committed to signing their children up — the number required to get the program off the ground, said Idaho Falls spokeswoman Margaret Wimborne.

Sunnyside’s program will cost $275 a month, Wimborne said. Its focus will be on “expanding” and “enriching” instruction.

Idaho Falls is also considering extended-day kindergarten programs at AH Bush and Temple elementary schools. Their focus will be on interventions to increase student achievement, rather than enrichment, Wimborne said.

Instead of fees, Federal Title 1 dollars and added state K-3 literacy funding would fund the programs.

It’s not the first time Idaho Falls has announced the launch of an all-day kindergarten program. Last year, trustees approved an all-day pilot program, with the intent to choose participating schools based on parent surveys. Trustees later rescinded the program, due to lower-than-expected enrollment.

Idaho STEM Action Center sponsors K-12 educator registration for IDC Conference

The 2019 ACM Interaction Design and Children Design Conference will be held in Boise this year. The conference will take place June 12-15. IDC is the premier international conference for interaction design for children and includes a mix of research from academia and industry.

The conference is hosted by the Association for Computing and Machinery, the worlds largest educational and scientific computing society, and it is chaired by BSU associate professor of Computer Science Jerry Alan Fails.

The STEM Action Center is sponsoring a limited number of registrations for K-12 Idaho public educators to participate in workshops on June 15  for free. To see the workshops and courses available and to register for one, complete the IDC form here.

Boise School District announces partnership with national organization to promote apprenticeships for students

The Dennis Technical Education Center of the Boise School District will be joining the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) program. The PAYA Network is an organization that seeks to connect students to apprenticeship opportunities across the country.

“PAYA will support learning in the Boise School District that works and will assist with building a more equitable workforce and economy,” said Jason Hutchison, principal of the Dennis Technical Education Center.

Apprenticeships create pathways for students to careers or college degrees, and they help students gain post-secondary credentials, credits, and degrees on top of paid work experience.

PAYA will support the Boise School District in exploring how to build successful youth apprenticeship programs to create more economic opportunities for its students.

ISEF and other Idaho STEM Action Center funding opportunities for educators

The Idaho STEM Action Center is training Idaho educators to mentor student research projects for the upcoming Idaho Science and Engineering Education Fair in May. These trainings are aligned with Idaho Content Standards and count towards two PD credits.

Three separate trainings will be held around Idaho in late July and early August. STEM AC will reimburse elligble participants for travel costs.

ISEF Trainings:

• Western: July 29-30 at Boise State University
• Eastern: August 1-2 at Idaho State University
• Northern: August 13-14 at North Idaho College

The Idaho STEM Action Center is also sponsoring other professional development and learning opportunities for Idaho’s public educators. Other current funding opportunities include Computational Thinking & Problem Solving Dual Credit PD Training, and the Code.org Professional Learning Program.

For more details and registration, visit the funding information page at the Idaho STEM Action Center.