Full Day Kindergarten Proposed For Chatham School District

CHATHAM, NJ — A new full-day kindergarten could be a reality in the near future, according to Chatham Superintendent Michael LaSusa, who presented a plan to reconfigure the school district as a way to help combat enrollment declines.

The proposed plan also calls for all fifth-graders to be assigned to Chatham Middle School.

LaSusa asserted that the reconfiguration was a plan that would be discussed and explored throughout the school year and that if approved, it would not be implemented before the start of the 2024 school year.

Currently, the Chatham school district, according to LaSusa, is at a disadvantage because it does not provide full-day kindergarten to all students. "There are very few districts left in the state of New Jersey that don't run a full-day kindergarten program, and the reason for that is that a full-day kindergarten program is superior to a half-day program," LaSusa said.

According to LaSusa, only 5 percent of New Jersey districts do not provide full-day kindergarten, which is not required by the state, and Chatham and Kinnelon are the only districts in Morris County that do not provide full-day kindergarten for all students.

"Lack of a full-day program is definitely the single biggest weakness instructionally in our school district right now," LaSusa said.

Chatham started a full-day kindergarten lottery system in 2019, and this year there are 80 full-day kindergarten students in the district, with each student paying $7,000 in tuition for the school year.

"We try to offer as many seats in full-day kindergarten as we can. So a couple of years back when we first did this we offered two sections, the pandemic gave us a little bit of a speed bump and now at this year we are at four sections of full-day kindergarten," LaSusa said.

Discussion among board members about whether tuition should be charged when full-day kindergarten is implemented, and whether the cost could be reduced or increased. "As I mentioned we have 80 students in full-day kindergarten and we're charging $7,000 a student and that is over half a million dollars. In this current environment with a two percent tax levy cap could not just give up half a million dollars in revenue. However, if we charge half as much but enrolled twice as many students then we would be made whole in terms of revenue," LaSusa said.

The district's restructuring plan, according to LaSusa, would also include a shift to K-2 elementary schools, grades 3 and 4 to Lafayette, and fifth graders to Chatham Middle School, which would then accommodate grades 5 through 8.

The plan would prevent redistricting of students in the future when enrollment increases.

The initial plan presented to the board included converting the district's three elementary schools, Milton, Washington and Southern Boulevard, from K-3 to K-2; converting Lafayette to a 3-4 school; and adding fifth graders to Chatham Middle School, which would include grades 5 through 8.

Chatham High School would remain the same.

"When I say this is a consideration what I want to emphasize is this is something to explore and evaluate. This is not some automatic forgone conclusion. This would take a lot of analysis, a lot of work, a lot of planning and it could be that this is a dead-end street… Or it could be that this consideration leads us to being able to have a stronger school district overall," LaSusa said.