After months of discussion, the North Colonie Central School District plans on addressing the need for full-day kindergarten, pending Board of Education approval. With North Colonie being one of only about 25 districts in the state still using half-day kindergarten, the district discussed implementing full-day kindergarten programs in the 2015-16 school year. Residents and teachers gathered Thursday, March 19, at the latest budget meeting to hear about the effects on staffing, the budget, and the students. The program is not a sure thing yet, with the Board of Education having the last say during the final budget draft. However, according to Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Kathleen Skeals, the need for full-day kindergarten has become increasingly apparent. She said that many of the district’s kindergarten teachers have told her that programs for socialization, like art, music and circle time, are being cut from the 150 minute half-days. “(The kids) need to learn to be students. They need to learn how to interact with other kids. They need time to play, they need time to sing. They need time to do art. Right now, there’s not enough time for a full schedule,” said Skeals. The district has planned on adding five new classrooms for full-day kindergarten. Currently, there are three half-day classrooms at Blue Creek, Boght Hills, Forts Ferry and Latham Ridge, which will each be adding one. Loudonville will be bumped up to three, and Southgate would keep its two current classrooms based on enrollment numbers. If some schools, like Boght Hills and Latham Ridge, reach full enrollment capacity, they would come close to exceeding the numbers of seats in classrooms, even with the new rooms. Skeals said that the district would look at swing zone neighborhoods and send overflow to neighboring district elementary schools, where the students would remain until middle school. When converting from half to full-day kindergarten, districts usually receive about a $750,000 conversion aid from the state. Skeals said this would help with staffing and supplies, although she anticipated possibly only needing to hire one full-time teacher, meaning a $75,000 cost to the district for the salary. Since Southgate already has an extra third grade class than needed, that teacher could be reassigned to kindergarten, said Skeals. As well, when common core was first introduced several years ago, the district assigned six teachers to be “instructional coaches” to help teachers better grasp the new curriculum standards. Skeals suggested reassigning three of those positions to kindergarten, meaning only one full time teacher would need to be hired, or reassigning four positions, meaning no new hires. Kindergarten special education programming would also undergo change. Currently, those students stay an extra half-day to prepare for first grade. Skeals proposed a co-teaching method with full-day kindergarten, where the special education students would remain in a regular classroom all day, but a special education teacher would come in to help during the second half of the day. This method would require another 1.5 full-time equivalent special education teachers would be needed. Skeals again suggested reassigning three current special education teachers to take on those roles. The district would also be saving $178,000 with the reduction of midday bus runs. As well, any conversion costs to classrooms are covered under capital project funds voted on last year, so the money is already calculated into the 2015-2016 budget if the board decides to approve full-day kindergarten. “We don’t feel like we’re going to be putting the district in a particularly difficult position in terms of our financial stability,” said Skeals. Overall, she said the district could save around $26,500. Reducing midday runs, however, brought concern from district bus drivers. One current bus driver said the elimination of midday runs means two hours less per day for several drivers. “That’s the loss of 20 hours per pay period,” he said, which equals to about a 25 percent loss annually. Superintendent Joseph Corr said that discussions are ongoing between the district and bus drivers to see what can be done, but said he couldn’t comment any more than that. Along with possibly implementing full-day kindergarten, North Colonie is looking to add efforts to meet revised English as a New Language (ENL) state mandates into its 2015-16 budget. New mandates include efforts to help English learning students, particularly high school students, better learn grade-appropriate language and not fall behind after passing the proficiency exam. For North Colonie, this means a need for more staff and training for current teachers.The state mandates require school districts to engage English learning students in language that is grade-appropriate. As well, all teachers should teach “academic language and challenging content” to all students and be prepared to help with English proficiency. “So what they are saying is, if you have a 16-year-old who moved into this country… you are to be teaching him chemistry and U. S. history and everything else every 16-year-old would learn. You don’t start with a little ‘Spot the Dog’ book when the child is 16,” said Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Kathleen Skeals. The student may understand chemistry, said Skeals, but the problem is the language barrier. In addition to having specific ENL lessons, there is a push for co-teaching methods in subjects like chemistry and history. An ENL instructor should be in the classroom with a chemistry teacher to help any English learning students with the language of the curriculum. Skeals said the district needs to plan for time for teachers to learn and get used to unfamiliar co-teaching methods. Other requirements include having an ENL teacher in each classroom with an English learning student, having no more than two grade levels in an ENL classroom, and providing up to two more years of support after students pass the English proficiency exam. The largest impact this has on North Colonie lies with staffing. If the district were to meet every new mandate, it would need to hire six new teachers. Since the hike in the salary budgeting would be too high, the state has asked districts to make a “good faith effort” to meet mandates. Next year, the district will hire one full-time secondary education English Second Language teacher, since the focus is to prepare high school students for the Regents exams and graduation. Skeals said that the district has seen seniors not graduate due to the high-level of English proficiency needed for the texts on the English exam. The state is also considering an expedited means to get an ENL certification for certain teachers. Qualified North Colonie teachers would be reimbursed the tuition to get the certification. Skeals said that teachers have already asked her about expanding their certifications. In the 2016-17 school year, the district will begin phasing in staff needed for the elementary schools. Over all, Skeals said the revised program would cost the district about $100,000, with $75,000 going towards a new full-time teacher and $25,000 toward tuition reimbursement. “It’s going to take a lot of professional development,” Skeals said. “It’s going to take a lot of time, but we feel like for the staffing piece of this, we have it solidly in hand.”