4K Will Return in 2013-14 School Year

Parents of preschool-age children will have the option to enroll their tots for the 2013-14 school year as the Muskego-Norway School Board voted to approve continuing 4-year-old kindergarten (4K) for another year.

The program began with the 2010-11 school year and has seen steadily increasing enrollment (208 students are currently enrolled for this year), but will need board approval to continue. Statewide, 88 percent of school districts have 4K programs.

The school board met Monday night to cast a final vote on the proposal, after a report from the district posted very positive results.

Some of the statistics in that report included:

• Letter identification for these students upon reaching first grade showed 94 percent reaching benchmarks, with only 35 percent of students in first grade who had not attended 4K doing so.
• Reading benchmarks in first grade also showed some disparity, with 4K students reaching them 83 percent the time compared to 66 percent of non-4K students.
• Parent responses to the program were also strongly positive, with 100 percent saying they would recommend the program to others and that the program has met their expectations.
• After losing $252,000 in the first year, the program had a surplus of $47,000 in 2011-12 and $4,200 this year.

Board member Mike Serdynski cast the only no vote, stating that he feared the costs of the program would only grow, and wasn't convinced the program would yield long-term results on achievement.

However Business Director Scot Ecker called the program "the only one I know of that can actually reduce tax dollars."

Member Eric Schroeder agreed, reminding the board that "what sold us several years ago was the financial benefit to the community. Since then it's also shown to increase student enrollment as well as increase state aid."

The board will again review the program for 2014-15 next December.