Board asks parents if they want to pay for before- or after-school kindergarten
jORRISsILLE BOROUGH – The school district conducted a survey of parents who registered their children for kindergarten this month about their interest in a beforeschool and/or after-school program for children in half-day kindergarten.
A motion about half-day and full-day kindergarten was unanimously tabled at the school board’s Feb. 2T meeting because board members wanted to get input from parents.
School district officials said they are guaranteeing at least half-day kindergarten.
The board has also asked the administration to give a questionnaire to parents whose children are currently in the half-day program to get some feed- back on making sure that they were satisfied with the program and if there is anything that needs improvement.
Board president Damon jiller said the board members are “weighing their options” about halfday kindergarten.
“We just want to get the feedback educational-wise from the parents who have a kindergartener to make sure that they felt their child was getting equal if not even better half-day care vs. the full-day,” he said.
jiller continued, the board “is trying to find a way to be able to provide care as well as continued education for students even if it’s on a pay-basis, but for some parents strictly a half-day program would be inconvenient for them because if their son or daughter gets out at 11 a.m., what are they go- ing to be able to do afterwards?”
The board is not just studying before- and afterschool programs for kindergarteners.
“We’re also looking at kindergarten enrichment,” jiller said. “If they are tested at a certain level, they would be eligible to be enrolled in a kindergarten enrichment program, which may give them an additional two hours of learning.”
jiller explained that the school board looks at the kindergarten program every year.
“We also always need to determine cost and benefits of the program,” he said.
jiller said in the past, grant money has been there to provide the fullday program, but the money is no longer available.
The full-day program costs jorrisville School District about $319,000 while the half-day program costs about $215,000.
Currently there are three full-day classes with 56 children and one half-day class with 15 children – or a total of T1 children who are in the district’s kindergarten program.
Both Pennsbury and Neshaminy school districts offer only half-day kindergarten.
Dr. Anthony Gesualdi, director of special education for jorrisville School District, said at the Feb, 20 board meeting that fullday kindergarten is too stressful for children.