February 9, 2009

Board of Education supports full-day kindergarten beginning in September.

The Board of Education tonight, after weeks of studying the pros and cons of the current transitional kindergarten and proposed full-day kindergarten programs, agreed with Superintendent Susan Swartz's recommendation to begin full-day kindergarten in September.

The four elementary principals, director of curriculum and instruction and 65 percent of incoming kindergarten parents supported a full-day program.

Kindergarten teachers will work during this school year and this summer to develop a comprehensive curriculum for the full-day program.

Here is the story in the Daily Gazette about the Board of Education action

Here are several documents (in PDF) about the Transitional Kindergarten program:

• Kindergarten Advisory Committee from 1998

• Board of Education minutes from 2000 beginning the Transitional Kindergarten program at Glen-Worden

• 2001 report about Transitional Kindergarten at Glen-Worden

• 2002 report about Transitional Kindergarten at the other three elementary schools

On Jan. 26, Superintendent Susan Swartz recommended that the school district adopt a Full-Day Kindergarten program beginning in September 2009 to replace the current Transitional Kindergarten program.

Here is a PDF of her presentation

Here is the Jan. 27 article in the Daily Gazette about the presentation

A parent forum about the kindergarten program was held on Jan. 15.

Here is the summary of the Jan. 15 comments made at the parent forum (in PDF).

Here is the Jan. 16 Daily Gazette article about that meeting.