Chatham 'Not Committed' To Full-Day Kindergarten

CHATHAM, NJ - As expected, the interest in prospective full-fay kindergarten program, even on the pilot basis, prompted questions about the program and the possible implications if enacted. But at last week's School District of the Chathams Board of Education meeting, Vice President Matthew Gilfillan said it was still too early to know what those implications would be.

"Its a pilot program and when we first talked about it I told everyone not to get crazed up about it because its in its early stages of discussion," Gilfillan said. "In terms of how it would impact the balance of the community of people who offer this as for profit situation we actually have no idea because we don't know what latent demand is and we don't know what the price points are, what comparative price points are for what people would offer outside of what we would offer."

Gilfillan stressed that it is limited program and they are looking at one classroom to start.

"Again its a pilot program," Gilfillan said. "We have not made any decisions, we have not made any policy changes saying we have a design in place now to go do a full-day kindergarten."

Gilfillan said the idea came up as the district looks to utilize resources that become available. Board President Jill Critchley Webber said in order the program to fly they need to have both the classrooms and the budget.

"We have maybe a classroom that may free up since we put four new ones online," she said. "And we still don't have the finances so that is why its tuition based. We need to have a room, we need to have enrollment and we need to have tuition based to pay for it. So we've been steadfast on this for years."

Gilfillan said it is not something that the district can say they would be offering on an annual basis because they don't know what the district student level is going to be on an annual basis.

"I would say just let this play out and we'll see how it works. We'll see if it can work," Gilfillan said. "But we are in no way making any kind of commitment that we are moving towards or committed to a full-day kindergarten policy."

Webber said the conversation is still moving along and updates will be shared as necessary. You can see the discussion for yourself at approximately 38 minutes in on the video below.

(Photo courtesy of YouTube)

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