Comrie family funds full-day kindergarten

Students and school officials gathered Thursday morning in Beacon Heights School to launch a new full-day kindergarten program there, thanks to a donation from Bill Comrie, founder of The Brick stores.

The Comrie family contributed $500,000 to fund the full-day kindergarten program over the next five years, the Edmonton Public Schools Foundation said in a news release. The charity raises money and advocates for early learning and full-day kindergarten programs in Edmonton’s public schools.

Such full-day programs help make sure disadvantaged students have more opportunities to succeed, said Comrie, who toured the classroom Thursday and visited with staff and students.

“The kids that only get to go half day, they get behind the eight ball and aren’t on a level playing field,” Comrie said in an interview.

“We live in California now but our roots are from Edmonton and ... I spent three years living in Beverly, very close to that school. The community has always been good to us so we’ve tried really to give back.”

The Comrie Family Learning Centre opened this month and serves 17 students at Beacon Heights School, at 4610 121 Ave., in northeast Edmonton. The elementary school serves a socially vulnerable community with a diverse student population, Edmonton Public Schools Foundation says.

The provincial government funds half-day kindergarten, but Edmonton Public Schools provides extra funding to offer full-day kindergarten at more than 20 of its highest-needs schools. It costs an estimated $100,000 per year for Edmonton Public Schools to subsidize each full-day kindergarten class.

Since the Edmonton Public Schools Foundation was established in 2010, it has raised enough money to keep six full-day kindergarten programs running across the public school district. That includes three that opened in the 2013-14 school year, at Beacon Heights, Calder and Princeton schools.

Premier Alison Redford promised in 2011, as she ran for the Progressive Conservative leadership, to fund fullday kindergarten provincewide. However, that plan is on hold because of lowerthan-projected government revenues. Redford said in December she can’t guarantee her government will implement full-day kindergarten during the current term.