Resident Implores South Windsor Officials to Keep Full-Day K in Budget

Just two residents spoke Tuesday evening at the South Windsor Town Council’s public hearing on the Board of Education’s proposed $68.12 million budget.

Resident Wendy Glatt made an impassioned plea for the Town Council to keep full-day kindergarten in the budget.

“Every parent I have spoken to wants [full-day kindergarten],” she said.
Glatt said that kindergarteners today are being asked to do work that was expected of first and second graders when she was in school.

“The demands on children have increased exponentially,” she said, adding that there is no way for teachers and students to accomplish the goals of the state’s Common Core standards in a half-day kindergarten setting. “The stress on children and staff makes school not a fun place to be.”

People move to South Windsor for its schools, Glatt said. If full-day kindergarten is not kept in the budget, the town runs the risk of having families move out of town, she said.

Resident Larry Torff called on the school board to consolidate the number of elementary schools from five to four. Torff said that at a time of declining enrollment, the savings in administrative and building expenses from the consolidation could cover the cost of full-day kindergarten.

But, Torff said that he was encouraged to learn that the school board had recently taken up the issue of updating the district’s aging elementary school facilities.

“Doing nothing is not an option,” Torff said.

Still, after close examination, Torff said that he supported the budget as proposed.

Mayor Tom Delnicki said afterward that he was hoping to get more public input, but that the low turnout could have been attributable to the council soliciting questions from residents for a special work session.

Over 60 questions were submitted for that session, Delnicki said.

A straw poll of those in attendance Tuesday revealed that three people were in favor of the budget, no one was against it and no one was in favor of increasing it.

Prior to public comment, school board Chairman David Joy said there were three main drivers behind the proposed increase: special education outplacements, contractual obligations and full-day kindergarten.

Indeed, over half of the proposed increase - $1.35 million - is in the area of special education, which Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kate Carter said in a previous meeting was due to a spike in the cost of outplacements.

In addition, the proposed budget also contains funding for full-day kindergarten, new mathematics textbooks for grades 3 and 4, seven new courses at the high school (including AP Spanish Language and Culture, Engineering and Design and Italian II), and the addition of boys and girls swim teams and boys junior varsity volleyball.

The impact of full-day kindergarten on the budget is $303,876, with the total cost of $522,785 offset by $219,000 of personnel and program grants. Because of declining student enrollment and elementary retirements, the school district would only be adding 4.5 full-time equivalent positions to the elementary staffing, of which two FTEs will be paid through grants.

The school board in February unanimously approved Carter’s recommended budget, sending it along to the Town Council for consideration.

The Town Council will discuss the school board’s budget at a special work session on April 29.