$4.2M Full-Day Kindergarten Plan Announced For Wayne Schools

WAYNE, NJ — Full-day kindergarten may finally come to the Wayne Public School District due to a plan laid out by school officials that involves raising taxes.

The $4.2 million plan would be stretched out over three years, culminating in full-day kindergarten starting Wayne in the 2021-22 school year. Officials laid out their plan at a Board of Education meeting Thursday.

The plan is contingent upon a 2 percent tax levy increase, "minimal" financial setbacks, cutting back on other facility work, and continued increases in state aid.

The plan involves renovating the Preakness School building on Hamburg Turnpike to create 12 new classrooms for more than 200 students. This renovation work is an "essential" part of the $1.3 million first phase of the plan, said Superintendent Dr. Mark Toback.

The $1.3 million is available through an increased savings of $900,000 in district medical insurance benefits and reallocating $400,000 in capital projects funds.

The Preakness School currently houses the Preakness annex of the Wayne Public Library, a training center for school employees, and a specialized high school program.

Preakness School would be used as an early childhood education center for preschool students for the 2020-21 school year. Classrooms would continue to be renovated at the school as part of the second phase of the project. This work would cost $1.1 million, officials said.

Full-day kindergarten would finally come to the district as a cost of $1.7 million for the 2021-22 academic year.

Wayne is projected to receive $5.7 million in state aid for the 2019-20 school year numbers from Gov. Phil Murphy's administration released recently show.

Wayne is slated to receive 11 percent more in aid, or more than $567,800, for the 2019-20 school year than it did this year. (See related: Wayne Schools' State Aid Projected To Increase)

Bringing full-day kindergarten to Wayne is not contingent upon reducing art and music programs, major reductions to extracurricular activities, increasing class sizes, or redistricting, officials said.

Bringing full-day kindergarten to Wayne, the only Passaic County school district not to offer it, has been a long and complicate process dating back to 2015.

The Board of Education in March 2015 moved forward with a plan to bring it to Wayne for the 2016-17 school year. (See related: Wayne Board of Ed Moves to Bring Full-Day Kindergarten)

But that plan was short-lived after residents in November 2015 voted down a referendum question about implementing the program. A dedicated group of residents launched a grassroots campaign that election season in favor of the program. (See related: Wayne Full-Day Kindergarten Voted Down)

The board reversed course on its decision in 2016 after debating with residents for months regarding how the then $2.1-million program could have been implemented after the referendum was defeated.

Residents again voted 'no' via a referendum in November 2016 to the question of raising nearly $2.1 million to implement the program and increasing school taxes $94. (See related: Wayne Votes Down Full-Day Kindergarten — Again)

For more information about the district's plan to bring full-day kindergarten to Wayne, and the district's proposed budget for the 2019-20 school year, click here.

A kindergarten wrap around program was implemented as an alternative to full-day kindergarten

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com