Expanded preschool-lite programs inspiring optimism at Billings’ South Side schools

This summer is the first that School District 2 has expanded a six-week, half-day kindergarten jumpstart program that aims to demonstrate that when students get extra time in the classroom, good things happen — that moving up the starting line can help close long-standing achievement gaps.

For the past two years, an informal program germinated at Orchard Elementary, with educators collecting promising academic assessment results that helped convince district administrators to expand the program to Newman and Ponderosa this year.