Chatham To Offer Two Full-Day Kindergarten Sections

CHATHAM, NJ - For parents who have been waiting for the opportunity to explore full-day kindergarten in Chatham, that option will be available within the next month, according to School District of the Chathams Superintendent Michael LaSusa.

During the school board meeting Monday, LaSusa laid out the details on how the new pilot program would work.

"We just finished our first round of kindergarten registration and our numbers continue to be low. A little bit lower this year than they were last year. And last year was a little bit lower than it was in prior years. So the end result of this which will post on our website and advertise in the coming week is we believe we can fairly, comfortably offer a pilot section of full-day kindergarten at Milton Avenue School and another pilot section of kindergarten at Washington Avenue School," LaSusa said. "This would be based on a lottery for parents who are interested in having students attend a full-day program. And the tuition amount that we have discussed in committee, that the finance committee has recommended is $7,000 for the program."

LaSusa said they came to the $7,000 tuition amount by utilizing already established numbers.

"We already have an established rate of tuition for elementary students. Its $14,000 per year. High school is about $17,000. So we are taking half of the $14,000 for $7,000 because we already offer a free half-day program," LaSusa said. " So $7,000 will be the rate. So we anticipate being able to fill two classes at 24 students each at $7,000 a clip."

LaSusa said the next step will be to communicate all those details and more to those who have preregistered and then post it publicly in a number of places so that anyone who didn't preregister because they were considering going to a private full day program in some other place will be aware of it.

The lottery will be held at at the very end of February or the first of March.

Board member Michelle Clark wanted to know what would happen if the district suddenly experiences an unexpected spike in enrollment.

"Lets just say our numbers do bubble up and we get kids that enroll at certain grade levels, perhaps over the summer, what happens if we push ourselves to the limit and at one of these schools, maybe its Milton or Washington, for kids who are enrolling in half-day kindergarten, and we've now absorbed the space or staffing for this pilot program," Clark said. "How are we positioned to handle that."

LaSusa said they were conservative in the space allocation to guard against such an occurence.

"We felt comfortable that we could handle one in each place and not be at jeopardy if we end up having an increase in registrants," he said. "And we anticipate that when we have the full-day lottery launch we will absorb some kids who are registered now for half-day into the full-day so we may have slots open up, even in the half day."

Clark said she didn't want to see a kid lose their space at their home school.

"I don't want a kid to have to be moved for kindergarten because there is an open spot at Southern but they're at a Milton or Washington location," she said. "I want to make sure that we are definitely able to accomodate students in their home schools."

LaSusa said they should have enough of the numbers to make sure what they promise, they can deliver on.

"We're doing first grade registration now, so if there was something unforeseen we would know in advance of the lottery and we could adjust at least," he said. "We can never predict what happens in the summer, but usually we have a fairly good idea of at least how kindergarten and first grade will look after the formal registration at this time."

For her part, Board member Mary Chambers wanted to make sure it was clear that the pilot is for the 2019-202 school year and there is no guarantee of it continuing past that.

"This would have to be a yearly decision going forward based on numbers. This would be a pilot program and probably be a year-to-year allotment if we can do it based on the numbers," Chambers said. "Doesn't guarantee that we will have it next year. I just want to make sure everybody understands that."

Resident Bill Heap during in public comment said he hoped the district considered the financial impact on the local churches in town by implementing the pilot program.

The initial discussion begin around the 18 minute mark in the video.

(Photo courtesy of YouTube)

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