Superintendent Says Pay-to-Go Kindergarten Against Philosophy

Attleboro Superintendent Pia Durkin address parent's concerns over the equality of half -day versus full-day Kindergarten and concerns overs its existing lottery system at the School Committee meeting Monday night. 

While Durkin is in favor of having full-day Kindergarten for all of the students who want it, she said it just isn't possible because of current budget issues.

Against philosophy

Durkin addressed a suggestion by some parents to make full-day kindergarten a pay-to-go option by voicing concerns about the idea “Public education was established to be the great equalizer,” Durkin said, adding that moving toward a pay system would be against the philosophy behind public schools.

While parents who are in favor of paying for kindergarten were forthcoming in past public school committee meetings, some families, who would not be able to pay for kindergarten, voiced their concerns in private, according to Durkin.

“At least 20 parents have come to the principals to say  ‘We really hope you’re not going to charge,'” Durkin said. Additionally, Durkin said moving toward a pay system would create animosity among the parents who are the “haves and have-nots.” “We don’t want to bifurcate this community by those who pay and those who don’t,” Durkin said.

Durkin also pointed to a survey of 239 parents in which 65 percent said they would not be interested in the full-day kindergarten if there was a tuition fee of $3,000-$4,000.

Additionally, Durkin said the implementation of a tuition system would be a complex system and the district would have to develop policies regarding what to do if parents become unable to pay.

“We are not a collection agency,” Durkin said. 

Cost of Pay-to-Go System

As for financial implications of such a system, the report estimated the cost of expanding the full-day program through the addition of five classrooms would be $590,000.

• This includes $250,000 for hiring new teachers, 
• $75,000 for their benefits, 
• $10,000 for their professional development, 
• $125,000 for materials and furniture 
• And the loss of $130,000 state grant associated with the current full-day kindergarten program. 
• The revenue generated by the tuition would cover these associated costs with a fee of $3,000 generating $780,000 based on this year’s enrollment of 400 students, of which 140 would qualify for free or reduced tuition.

Business manager Marc Furtado did note that these figures did not include any costs associated with the possible need for additional class rooms or transportation.

Lottery or Selection?

The superintendent’s report also clarified the lottery process, which was started in 2008 with the original introduction of the full-day program. The process requires a proportional representation of boys, girls, low-income students and special needs students.

Students who are English Language Learner programs and Individualized Education Programs (students with significant disabilities) have their own full-day programs at the schools and are not part of the overall lottery.

Also, siblings in the lottery are assigned the same number so that, while it is true that if one sibling is chosen the other is also chosen, their overall odds of their number being chosen is not increased.

Equality of morning vs. afternoon

Regarding the equality of the programs Durkin said that her findings do not show significant differences in achievement between full-day and half-day programs. However, there were differences between the a.m. and p.m. programs, which were attributed to the classes being assigned randomly by bus route.

In order to fix this, assignments for the a.m. and p.m. classes were made more proportional to the overall enrollment numbers for the 2010-2011 school year.

The 2010-2011 school year is also the first year the district has used standardized math assessments at the kindergarten level to monitor any inequalities among the a.m., p.m. and full-day classes.

Parents want answers

In an open forum following the report, parent Mary Ellen Hinton pressed Durkin for details regarding the differences between the kindergarten classes and Durkin said she would be willing to go over them with Hinton as well as provide a report to the committee as a whole.

Hinton also suggested the committee consider a system where half the students are in full-day kindergarten for half the year and then have them switch with the half-day students for the second half of the school year.

The school committee voted to continue discussing the issue in both their curriculum and finance sub-committees and will consider making changes for the upcoming year, though it seems unlikely.

“For September 2011, I would say that it would be a very difficult to implement–almost impossible,” Durkin said. “Give us some time, give the administration some time,” Helen Johnson said.

School Committee Notes:

• Voted to accept the donation of $1,300 from Howie Levine to the Attleboro Evening Diploma Program at Attleboro High School
• Voted to accept the donation of four Dell laptops valued at $1,745; four projectors valued at $1,303; four Elmo projectors valued at $600 and $500 worth of mulch from the Thacher PTO for use at Thacher Elementary
• Voted to approve the field trip proposal from AHS for 28 students to visit the 9/11 Memorial Museum Preview Site in New York City on June 10