School district will scale back TK class program

The Miller Creek School District will keep a reduced version of transitional kindergarten in its elementary schools next year.

Kristy Treewater, the San Rafael district's deputy superintendent, made the announcement at a special board of trustees meeting Monday. The decision followed concerns earlier this month that the district would cut the program entirely.

“We will reduce the program to three hours and 20 minutes daily,” Treewater said during a presentation on $1.28 million in budget cuts the district is planning for 2024-25. “That is the minimum required by the state.”

Transitional kindergarten, a program for 4-year-olds who do not yet meet the 5-year-old age eligibility for kindergarten, was mandated for all public schools statewide by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Although many school districts funded through per-student subsidies receive state aid for TK classes, districts that are so-called “basic aid” — or community-funded by local property taxes — do not receive any state assistance. Miller Creek is among numerous basic aid school districts in the county.

Treewater said the district will “explore whether our community partners can establish the maximum in child care services” to fill in for the remainder of the day not covered by the TK classes.

Trustees voted unanimously to send the updated list of budget cuts to the Marin County Office of Education by a deadline Friday. The county office requested details on the cuts before concurring with a “positive” status for the district's budget for 2024-25 and the two years after that.

“This will give us about 5.25% in reserves, so we can preserve our positive certification,” Treewater said. The minimum reserves amount needed to keep in positive status is 3%.

The board and administration also promised to look into other ways to reduce spending before the final budget is approved in June.

“Stay with us,” said trustee Caitlin McShane, spearheading a parent and staff budget advisory committee. “We have one more meeting left.”

Brad Honsberger, board of trustees president, said the district will also consider reductions in non-classroom spending such as transportation services, centralized district office operations and special education.

“We knew what was going to happen,” Honsberger said, referring to the expiration of one-time COVID-19 relief funds that caused a $1.2 million deficit in the district's approximately $33 million budget.

“Maybe we needed to do a better job communicating to everyone that this money's going to dry up in 2024,” Honsberger said. “How do we maintain strong communica