Glen Ellyn District 41 to Discuss All-Day Kindergarten at Next Meeting

Twice in the past week, residents in Glen Ellyn School District 41 have gathered to share with their opinions on all-day kindergarten with members of the board of education. Most recently, about 40 residents gathered at Hadley Junior High School on Wednesday night to share their thoughts.
“For both of the sessions, (residents) though we need to do something about the space at our elementary schools,” Erika Krehbiel, Glen Ellyn School District 41 Chief Communications Officer said in a later interview. “They feel like we need to do something for the space of our schools to remain competitive.”
The board of education has been discussing the possibility of all-day kindergarten for some time, but it always comes down to two challenges - space and financial constraints.
“The biggest take away from the two listening sessions that we held this past week is that our community expressed that they believe we need to do something about the space problems in our school buildings across the district,” Superintendent Paul Gordon in a later interview. “Until we have resolved our space issues, we cannot implement full-day kindergarten.
The listening sessions took place on Jan. 31 and Feb. 4.
Glen Ellyn School District 41 has one junior high and four elementary schools. They have been under construction to add space to their elementary schools for some time. But even with that construction, four portables remain at Churchill Elementary School and 10 at Hadley Junior High.
“This Monday, the Board will discuss a full-day kindergarten program recommendation contingent on the approval of a facilities plan and funding to support it,” Gordon said.
At its regular board meeting Feb. 9, board members will discuss two issues: whether or not the district should or can implement full-day kindergarten and what to do about the portables, specifically at Churchill Elementary School.
“That full-day kindergarten question is really the springboard question for how do we solve the space problem at our elementary schools,” Krehbiel said.
At the listening sessions, residents gave feedback about the proposed full-day kindergarten and their chief concerns included space at each of the schools and whether or not the district should implement full-day kindergarten by building another K through 5 building or by building an Early Learning Center.
“Either one of those options would go on a piece of property that the district already owns,” Krehbiel said. “That property used to have a school on it a number of years ago. We wouldn’t have to acquire any more property.”
The property is located Northwest of Ackerman and used to house the Spalding School.
The challenge for parents is that if the district built a K through 5 school on that property, the district boundaries would change. If they built an Early Learning Center, they would need to bus kindergarteners to the building and they would not be on the same bus as older siblings.
“The second take away is that the community members that we heard from support full-day kindergarten,” Gordon said. We will continue to engage the community on this topic and ask them to work with us to determine the best solution for our community.
The next board of education meeting is at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 9 at 793 N. Main St. in Glen Ellyn.