Board of Education approves full-day kindergarten to begin in 2012-13

(Jan. 24, 2012) The Voorheesville Central School District Board of Education approved the implementation of a full-day kindergarten program for the 2012-13 school year. The district will receive a one-time full-day kindergarten conversion aid.

The resolution passed 4-3 with Tim Blow, Gary Hubert, Kristine Gravino and Cindy Monaghan voting in support of full day kindergarten. C. James Coffin, Lisa Henkel and Cheryl Dozier opposed it.

“In this competitive world economy, I think this is going to be very beneficial to our students,” said Blow, board president.

The decision comes after years of deliberation. A task force formed in 2009 to study full-day kindergarten and concluded its work by recommending the district implement full-day kindergarten. At that time, the district had an interim superintendent and the board decided to table the issue. In December, Superintendent Dr. Teresa Thayer Snyder recommended to the Board of Education the district move to full-day kindergarten.

A community-wide survey was conducted over 10 days in January. Of the 541 responses, more than 77 percent indicated they support full day kindergarten, understanding the cost of providing this program would be evaluated with all other curriculum and extracurricular activities in preparing the district budget, including any related tax increase or decrease as a result of the program.

Based conservatively on 70 new full-day kindergarten students, the estimated full-day kindergarten conversion aid will be $188,644. The district also expects to save $30,000 by eliminating three mid-day bus runs. The district would receive the aid at the end of its first year in June 2013.

“An expanded instructional day will give us an opportunity to teach early literacy and math in a less compressed period of time,” says Snyder.

And since kindergarten is the first place in school where children receive instruction and modeling to support their social-emotional development, the extended day affords a chance for kindergarten children to develop important social skills in a less time-constrained environment. Additionally, counselors and teachers would have more time to collaborate and deliver meaningful instruction, modeling, and guidance in this area.

A summary of the survey results can be viewed, here (pdf).