BY LENA MAGEE
The Westside Express
Los Banos Unified School District (LBUSD) is making headway on its Transitional Kindergarten (TK) Center, with a tentative completion date set for November of this year.
The TK Center is being constructed on the corner of B Street and Place Road, behind Los Banos Junior High School and will provide an updated facility for transitional kindergarteners and preschoolers.
According to Sherry Munday, the facilities and special projects manager of LBUSD, the first set of prefabricated modular buildings have been set in place at the TK Center, with more to follow in the coming weeks.
Construction of the TK Center began on Sept. 30, 2024, with a target completion date set for August of this year. Due to weather and local and state agency approval delays, the completion date has been pushed to November of this year.
As this new target comes after the start of the school year, members of LBUSD Education Services are making plans to ensure that incoming transitional kindergarten students will have the classroom space they need.
The school district currently has a transitional kindergarten, but if enrollment is high in the next school year, they will need to find additional space for students.
The TK Center is being constructed in response to amendments to the California Education Code, which requires school districts to provide transitional kindergarten for children who will not turn 5 years old before or on Sept. 1. In previous years, any child turning 5 before Feb. 2 could be enrolled in kindergarten.
“[Transitional kindergarten] helps students bridge the gap between preschool and kindergarten, so they can excel in kindergarten,” said Munday.
The new center will also fulfill the education code’s classroom space requirement of 1,350 square feet for the transitional kindergarten, as well as include space for four preschool classrooms.
