Tri-Board Meeting To Discuss Free All Day Kindergarten Wednesday

ANDOVER, MA — Andover's select board and finance and school committees will jointly discuss a proposal to move to all-day kindergarten at their tri-board meeting Wednesday. School officials have presented the proposal to all three committees already, and according to the school committee chair, the school committee could vote on the proposal as early as Dec. 19 if the tri-board meeting goes well. Currently, the district only offers free half-day kindergarten, and charges $3,575 for full-day kindergarten.

Under the district's proposal, they would be able to move to full-day kindergarten without any cost to the town after 3 years of tuition decreases. With free full-day kindergarten, the district would receive more Chapter 70 funding from the state, with the increase roughly equal to the current tuition revenue. While there would be a gap year between the phase-out of tuition and the increase in state aide, that year could be covered using the remaining balance from the full-day kindergarten revolving account.

The gap is because chapter 70 funding is based on the previous year's numbers.

School Committee Chair Joel Blumstein said at the school committee's Thursday meeting that if everyone is on the same page at the tri-board meeting, he had suggested that each of the three boards could endorse the move.

"It would make sense for us to go first," Blumstein said. "We could take that vote at our next school committee meeting on the 19th."

At their presentation to the select board, Superintendent Sheldon Berman and School Committee Member Shannon Scully explained that while all costs would be offset to the state, the operating budget will increase about a million dollars as a result of the change. The state offset would have to be clearly explained, she said.

"It usually takes going to the town meeting one year and asking for an allocation for one year to cover that gap year," Scully said.

"For us to be able to afford this out of our revolving account is pretty exceptional," said Berman.

The town manager will also give a financial presentation to the three boards at the Wednesday meeting.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.