Rochester School Board To Consider Full-Day Kindergarten Amid Funding Challenges

While the district faces cuts in essential programs and services next year, its leaders also are debating the merits of a potential addition: a district-wide all-day, everyday kindergarten program.

The change, which has been encouraged by several kindergarten teachers and elementary school principals in the district, would cost between $750,000 and $1 million to implement in the first year and about $500,000 to maintain in the years that follow, according to Bill Mull, assistant superintendent for finance.

Most of the cost would be for teachers.

If it was implemented for next year, that cost would add to the $16 million deficit already projected.

Board members questioned school administrators and one another about the proposed change for more than an hour Monday night.

The administration has recommended beginning full-day kindergarten in the 2012-13 school year.

"If we move to a full-day kindergarten model, we want it to be sustainable and not short-sighted," said Alesia Flye, the district's director of Pre-K-through-12 curriculum. Flye said she and her team would need time to look, school by school, at classroom space and staffing.

For example, at and elementary schools  there are no additional classrooms to accommodate an extra kindergarten class, she said.

Flye said some elementary school district boundaries may have to be reworked or other programs may have to be moved.

Superintendent David Pruneau agreed that the district could implement full-day kindergarten next year, but he cautioned against moving too quickly.

"You run the risk of telling families that siblings may have to be split up," he said, acknowledging the possibility of redistricting and suggesting that special education and preschool programs may have to be moved.

Jan Weller, a kindergarten teacher at , outlined the benefits of an all-day curriculum in a recent letter to the board. She said without the change, students would be at a disadvantage.

"We are concerned about how Rochester kindergartners will be able to compete with those standards developed for a nation whose majority has implemented all-day, everyday kindergarten," Weller said.

Weller said she takes a curriculum that is designed for a full day and condenses it down to the three hours her students are at school. Factoring special classes like gym and music, as well as time spent unpacking backpacks and tying shoes, Weller guessed she has two hours of direct teaching each day.

"With an all-day program, we can give our students the time they deserve to fully understand the curriculum," she said.

Board members acknowledged research that points to the long-term benefits of full-day kindergarten and asked administrators if they have seen parent feedback on the proposed change. (.)

"If the value is truly student achievement, I don't know how we couldn't move forward with it," board member Beth Talbert said.

Board members will vote on the full-day kindergarten question at a future meeting.