The new school year is just underway, with some big changes. San Anselmo’s Brookside Elementary School was previously divided into two campuses. Lower Brookside was kindergarten through second grade, and third through fifth grades were at the Upper Brookside campus. With the big increase in enrollment of younger students, and after much thought about how to accommodate everyone, the district decided to split the two campuses into separate schools altogether. With last year as the transitional year, for this 2012-2013 school year Upper Brookside has been renamed Hidden Valley, and will be K-5. Lower Brookside will keep the Brookside name and is still in transition, with K-4 classes for now, and plans to become a complete K-5 next year.
Brookside Elementary has a new principal, Billy Cameron, who was previously assistant principal at Bacich Elementary School in Kentfield. Hidden Valley Elementary also has a new principal, Kristi Fish, who was previously a dean of students, assistant and interim principal at Ross Elementary in Ross. To read more about her and the new school check out the PTO website.
The Kindergarten Readiness act of 2010 will start to be implemented this year, which gradually will move up the eligibility cutoff so that in 2014 kids will need to be 5 years old by September 1st, where they previously had to be 5 by December 2nd to be eligible for Kindergarten admission. There is a Transitional Kindergarten program at Brookside that will allow children affected by the change to have a pre-kindergarten class on campus before their year in actual kindergarten. Further information on the requirements can be found here.