District 63 Still Mulling Full-Day Kindergarten

The School Board will take another month to decide whether to pursue a full-day kindergarten schedule at .

At Tuesday's meeting, some board members said they are concerned about the costs associated with extending the kindergarten program when the district only just got back on stable ground after having to make teacher and program cuts in recent years.

“We’re so much better financially than we were five years ago, but I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet,” said Board President Mike Webster.

“I’m not concerned about the educational value of full-day kindergarten,” added Board Secretary Beth Lopez. “I know it’s valuable. I just don't know that it's the right time.”

If the district approves the change, Concord will adopt the new schedule for the 2011-12 school year, Concord Principal Laura Anderson said.

Parents could opt out of the full-day kindergarten if they felt it was not appropriate for their child, Anderson said. Kindergarten classes now run on a half-day schedule that gives parents the option to pay tuition to extend the class to a full day.

District 63 Superintendent Kerry Foderaro said if the district’s kindergarten population stays at about 50 students, the cost would only be an additional $12,000 to make the program full-day.

Anderson said a longer school day would give staff more opportunities to intervene when students have trouble with social or early-learning skills. She noted that the school is seeing an increase in the number of students who need extra help.

The new schedule would also roughly double the amount of time for learning each day from two to four hours, she said.

In addition to extending the day, the school would add an interventionist into each kindergarten classroom who would work with students on specific skills, Anderson said. The school would likely employ the interventionist in place of a teaching assistant.

Karen Hyder, a first grade teacher at Concord, urged the School Board to move to full-day kindergarten.

“Our building block is our kindergartners,” she said. “I see the benefits of kids who have been in extended day program.”

Board member Shelly Camden said she is in favor of extending the kindergarten day.

“If it’s important enough for the administration to bring the issue to us and do all this research and provide these studies we have, I think it’s worthy of our time,” she said. “I think we would be remiss in our obligation to not consider doing it.”

But Lopez said officials need to “look at the big picture.

“What if we get our strategic plan back and we find that there are many needs, and when we prioritize those needs, full-day kindergarten is not in the top three?,” she asked. “We’ll have already decided we’re doing full-day kindergarten and we’re not going to go back. That would be a bad move on our part in terms of perception.”

She said now is not the time to pursue the measure for the district.

“I don't feel like we have a full-day kindergarten crisis on our hands,” she said.