Caledonia Argus

School board approves four-day kindergarten

Posted: 2/26/03

by Andrew Miller
Argus News Reporter

The ISD #299 school board on February 18 approved a proposal to switch the kindergarten program in place this year, in which parents could choose between a three-day and a five-day program, to a four-day program.

ìPersonally I believe our proposal is a better proposal than what weíre doing this year,î said Caledonia Elementary Principal Connie Hesse. ìItís a compromise based on the success of what weíve learned the all-day program to be.î

The compromise of which Hesse speaks is an attempt to accommodate the desire of many parents not to have their kids in an all-day every-day program, to maximize the classroom time available to students, and to stay within the confines of program funding.

ìNot all parents do support the all-day every-day program,î Hesse said, ìand the four-day program offers a compromise for the families who would not support enrolling their child in all-day kindergarten.î

Though unanimous support for the all-day kindergarten program is not forthcoming, educators argue that the extra classroom time gives students an advantage over other students in coming years. Jan Klug, the all-day every-day kindergarten teacher at Caledonia Elementary, said that in terms of level of understanding and maturity level, sheíd never seen a group of students that had developed as much as the all-day kindergartners.

This advantage of the five-day program was taken into consideration when school administrators devised the four-day program.

ìFour-day kindergarten provides all kids with 36 extra days of school,î Hesse commented, ìand weíve learned through the all-day program that more days is better for the kids, and it provides extra support to kids who need it.î

This extra support will come in the form of Wednesday class sessionsñ regular class sessions will be held Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridayñ for students who will benefit the most from attending five days a week.

The option of having some students attend five days and others attend four meshes with current funding for the district kindergarten program. The new program will require two full-time kindergarten teachers, at a cost to the district of just over $102,000. Class size reduction dollars , money the federal government provides for grades K-2 if the teacher-to-student ratio is equal to or less than 17-1, will alleviate about $36,000 of this, meaning the cost of the four-day program will be $66,700. At present, the district will pay out over $84,000 for kindergarten teachers this school year, $18,900 of which is paid for with kindergarten enrollment fees, meaning the difference between the cost of the current programñ roughly $65,000ñ and the cost of the four-day program is about $1500.

And unlike the all-day program, the four-day program is not fee-based. A family with a child in the all-day program this year paid $900, but next year there will be no fees required for kindergarten enrollment.

With funding secured, the decision to implement four-day kindergarten was driven by two rationales. First, there was the need to balance classes in terms of gender and ability was a factor. This year, parents were allowed to choose which programñ the three-day or the five-day programñ to place their kids in. As a result, Becky Newgaard, who currently teaches the three-day program, has 25 students in her classroom, 19 of which are boys.

The protocols used to divide the children into classes based on their emotional needs become moot when assigning kids to classrooms is based solely on parentsí preference as to the length of the school week. Going with the four-day program, then, allows the school to fill each classroom with a well-balanced cross-section of students.

Also a factor in the switch was President Bushís ìNo Child Left Behind Act,î which requires schools to provide programs that lessen the gap between the high-end and low-end students. With the program currently in place, the five-day kindergartners get a headstart on the students in the three-day program, simply by virtue of more classtime.

The four-day program lessens the gap between students by providing 36 additional days of school, compared with the three-day program, and by offering voluntary sessions on Wednesdays to some students.

Hesse is optimistic that the four-day kindergarten program will be successful in helping young students develop to the best of their abilities, and that next yearís kindergartners will be provided with the best alternative to a five-day program.

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