East Granby School Board Approves All-Day Kindergarten

The East Granby Board of Education at its regular meeting Monday overwhelmingly approved implementing all-day kindergarten in the curriculum beginning in the 2012-13 school year.

In a 7-0 vote, with one abstention, the school board adopted the recommendation made by Superintendent of Schools Christine Mahoney, who said earlier in the meeting that extending kindergarten from half-day to full-day would actually save the district a little over $20,000 by eliminating the mid-day bus run.

The full-day program, which will start with three sections of about 17 students in each class, will not require any new teachers or paraprofessionals, Mahoney said, as the district will be able to shift personnel around due to lower student populations at other grade levels.

The move means far more than a slight cost savings, however, as the state’s new, more rigorous core curriculum standards that are coming down the pipeline will require more intensive instruction in the early childhood years, Mahoney said.

There is also a pecuniary aspect to the decision, as the school district will receive $4,500 more - a jump from $6,000 to $10,500 - for each Open Choice student by implementing all-day kindergarten, Mahoney said. Open Choice students are students from Hartford who select a school district to attend outside the city as part of the landmark Sheff v. O'Neil settlement. The state reimburses the receiving school districts based on the percentage of students they receive. The higher the percentage, the more funds the districts receive.

In addition, Mahoney said that that the school district has been losing some students to other programs, including magnet schools, because they offer full-day kindergarten, which is an issue because the district has been experiencing gradual declining enrollment.

In her budget presentation, Mahoney noted that lower enrollment in small school district invariably means higher costs per pupil, which, in turn, means higher taxes.

"We have the space, staff, resources and timing to move ahead with full-day kindergarten," she said. "It'll be a lot of catching up if we don't."

School board members adopted the measure without a lot of debate.

“I don’t think it can be debated that it will help kindergarteners prepare for first grade and help return students to East Granby,” said school board Chairman Kirby Huget, who noted that the board had discussed implementing all-day kindergarten over the span of several meetings. "We've done our due diligence here."

Huget also noted that, reading the tea leaves, the state will eventually require every school district to have all-day kindergarten.

“The state is eventually going to shove this down our throats,” Huget said.

Included in the plan is a provision to have three first-grade classes in 2012-13 with about 14 students in each class. The goal is to help those who had half-day kindergarten in East Granby catch up with other kids who will be in first grade who had the benefit of all-day kindergarten in other programs, Mahoney said.

That was music to the ears of at least on East Granby parent.

“Yay,” was the one-word reaction from East Granby resident Karen Coushaine, who requested that there be small class sizes in first grade to help bridge the gap between all-day and half-day kindergarteners.