Kathleen Spring, superintendent for the Mohonasen Central School District, recommended implementing a full-day kindergarten program for the 2009-2010 school year.
The plan has been on and off the table for 20 years.
We believe, based upon our research, that it was the right thing to do but financially and space-wise, 20 years ago it didn’t work,` said Spring at the Monday, March 23, school board meeting.
In her presentation, she pointed to the positive feedback from focus groups and a community survey regarding a switch to full-day kindergarten. She also noted the increasing standards and graduation requirements students are expected to meet at ever younger ages, and said a full day of kindergarten would better prepare the students of the future.
Spring said that parents of incoming kindergarteners have asked about the possibility of a full-day program, and she said some have expressed concern that a full-day program would make kindergarten like the new first grade.
That would not be the case, Spring said.
`Full-day kindergarten would give us the opportunity to start students earlier and immerse them further,` she said `It’s not pushing first grade down to kindergarten, but it’s about doing a developmentally appropriate program.`
She also noted that in a time when the many schools in the area are laying teachers off, a move to full-day kindergarten would actually preserve, or even create, elementary school jobs. The district could also save money by eliminating mid-day bus runs.
District officials have also said that declining enrollment over the years has created more space for such a program, and the district could use that as an opportunity to get money from the federal stimulus package to fund new positions.
Many area school districts have also recently adopted full-day kindergarten programs, including Schalmont Central School District, Bethlehem Central School District and Scotia-Glenville Central School District.
According to Adrienne Leon, spokeswoman for the Mohonasen Central School District, full-day kindergarten is the norm in most other parts of the state, from rural to urban.
Leon said funding for the program would come partly from federal and state aid, not the general budget.
`Five kindergarten teachers would be hired,` she said. `They would be paid for through grant funding so it wouldn’t be part of the general fund budget.`
Leon said that part of the federal stimulus money includes grant funding.
`It’s an additional sum of money for grant and grant funding that’s included in that stimulus package, so a portion of that grant funding would be used to pay for the teachers,` said Leon.
She also noted that the state offers something called `transition aid,` which is money that the school receives in the second year after they implement the full-day program to help cover the costs of the transition.
Full-day kindergarten, if adopted, would start in September 2009.
District officials will continue discussing the proposal in the coming weeks.
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