By:Angela Marshall
When school opens next fall, most Rockville Centre kindergartners will be heading off to a full day of learning.
The Rockville Centre school board unanimously supported the superintendent's recommendation to include funding for an all-day kindergarten program in next year's budget. In a compromise move, the district will also offer half-day kindergarten at Riverside School if at least 15 children register for it.
Busing to Riverside will be provided by the district.
The compromise was not the one some parents were hoping for. A few parents again raised the issue of an extended-day program.
Administrators said the bottom line was that extended-day still offers less instructional time. They also sited studies that show it has no more benefit than half-day.
Lorrie Brady, who did not support the idea of changing to all-day when it was first brought forward, read from a prepared statement after the superintendent's presentation. In the past, I was confident that our half-day program was adequately meeting the educational needs of our five-year-olds, she read. However, after months of research and thoughtful analysis of that research, I've come to the conclusion that we can and need to do better.
So why offer a half-day version? Superintendent William Johnson told the crowd that while he still feels all children would be better served in an all-day program, that it was clear a number of parents felt they could supplement their child's education.
Johnson also added that because of the rules surrounding kindergarten attendance, it would be possible for parents choosing to send their child full-time to take their child out of school for an afternoon to visit a museum. During the discussions leading up to this decision, many parents said that a benefit to their child having free afternoons is their ability to go to museums and other places of cultural interest.
Approximately $570,000 will be included in the budget to cover new teachers, renovations, transportation and other items associated with all-day K.
In Johnson's outline of why all-day k should be adopted, he cited the state's new standards and the added academic demands that have been added to kindergarten curriculum.
As a school board, we need to provide an educational program that leaves no child behind, Brady said. All-day kindergarten is necessary if all our children are to meet the new standards and ultimately graduate with a Regent's diploma.
