All-Day Kindergarten Not in Proposed BOE Budget

At a recent Board of Finance meeting, board member Ken Gamerman raised the question of the much discussed question of all All-Day Kindergarten in Guilford Public Schools.

"I have to talk about the great unspoken," Gamerman said. "The issue of all day Kindergarten. There seems to be a strong public surge for this and the staff seems to be in support. Where are we at on this?"

"All Day Kindergarten is not in this proposed budget," responded Superintendent Paul Freeman. "I know it is something we need to address. It's not a matter of if, but when. It will come at some point, but it is not a high priority this year. We're doing a lot in this new budget, but we don't want to do too much new."

"While we haven't included in our budget," Freeman continued. "There is money in the budget to put together a group to study the benefits of an all day program. That money will come from the professional development budget, and is $5,000."

Freeman says this study will look at scheduling impacts, research, common core practices, staffing needs, and curriculum requirements of creating such a program. 

The program has been a point of discussion at prior meetings in recent years. According to meeting minutes, back in late 2011, "Dr. Keene stated that the Board did a study on full-day kindergarten several years ago, and it was determined that, while this would be a good idea, there many concerns about space and program considerations." 

In that same meeting, Dr. Keene alluded to a further study on the program saying, "Dr. Keene suggested that there would need to be a significant study on space utilization to determine if effective changes could be made."

The topic was also referenced in summer 2012 BOF meeting minutes:

Mr. Bloss said they are still not there yet. They are still not yet convinced there is an educational benefit and then there is the issue of space.  Mr. Bloss said he has a feeling that at some point the state may require them to offer it, which would be bad if that happened and they didn’t have the space.

For more on the proposed BOE budget, check out Guilford Patch's coverage of the BOF meeting. There will be a public hearing on the proposed budget Tuesday, March 5.