Officials at the Bethlehem Central School District said at a Wednesday, Feb. 3, meeting at the Board of Education that this year’s foray into full day kindergarten classes has been a rousing success for all involved.
But in a later interview, Superintendent Michael Tebbano said it now appears the state grant money promised to offset the program’s startup costs may be withheld.
The BC School District embarked on the switch to full day K last fall with the assumption the state would issue a grant payment at the end of the year based on student enrolment. The district had expected about $750,000 in aid, but expanded enrolment means BC should be entitled to more than $900,000.
Tebbano said the state has indicated that payment is no longer assured as educational fall on the budgetary chopping block in Albany.
Basically, they have changed the rules of the game in mid stream, he said. `We did everything we were asked to do in filing all the paperwork in the last four years for this funding.`
Tebbano said he would be visiting the capitol and meeting with legislators in coming weeks to lobby for the payment of the grant. Now that full day K is implemented and a success, however, he said there are no plans to turn back.
`The FDK program is going to succeed, but the insult is they want us to put the burden back on the school district,` he said.
Slingerlands Principal Heidi Bonacquist said the full day program has been well received by kindergarten teachers, who appreciate the extra time they can spend on every activity from reading to math, to simply getting children dressed to go home in the winter.
`It’s just a much more relaxed atmosphere. It makes the teachers less stressed and in turn the children less stressed,` she said.
Having more instructional time each day means that the district’s reading specialists have more time to interact with kindergarten classes`30 minutes a day five times a week instead of just three`said Elementary English Language Arts Supervisor Patty Skiba.
The reading specialists will not only hold small group work sessions with students, but also collaborate with teachers in lesson planning.
`They’re finding a little bit more time to do that planning,` Skiba said.
The specialists have also made it possible to administer the standardized English Language Proficiency Test to all kindergarten students, which helps to identify students who need extra help early on and provide them with one-on-one support.
`It’s really better to jump in early on,` when it comes to reading comprehension, Skiba said.
Bonacquist said having reading specialists available at every building has made a huge difference in instruction, and asked that the school board keep that in mind as they approach a budgeting process that might include layoffs.
`It’s a huge, critical component of the success of our full day K program,` she said.
BC Chief Business and Financial Officer Judith Kehoe at Wednesday’s meeting made a presentation regarding the workings of the Business Office.
With nine employees including Kehoe, the Business Office handles issuing approximately 28,000 paychecks annually to the district’s 1,100 employees. The office also fills around 8,000 vendor payments a year and spends 200 man-hours on state and federal reporting annually, Kehoe said.
`Those kind of volumes make the nine of us very busy,` she said.
The Business Office also plays a large role in preparing the budget and the contractual bargaining process. Kehoe noted BC is unusual amongst school districts in that there is no dedicated human resources department. Instead, that work is spread among administrators.
Having a single person to cover HR matters would be a great help to her staff, Kehoe said, but she acknowledged the district’s fiscal position.
`It isn’t really even possible given budget constraints to even think about getting there,` she said.
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