No All-Day Kindergarten in Summit. For now . . .

If you're a Summit parent of a child 4 and under this will interest you.  If not, it might not.  In any case, there was some talk and surveys and focus groups (I would have been happy to attend if invited) over this past summer that there might be a "Pilot Fee-Based" All-Day Kindergarten class in Summit in the Fall of 2012.  This was of great interest to me as a mom who not only strongly supports Summit's schools - they're the reason we moved here - but also as the parent of a 3 year old who could possibly benefit from such an arrangement. 

In a letter from Summit Superintendent Doctor Nathan Parker emailed to parents this evening, however, we were informed that the program was not to be.  And I feel it's a shame that the "discussion" came to what seems such a cursory ending.

I participated in the process as much as I could.  Filling in every survey I came across - even though it seemed at times that they were not widely distributed - and I (and other parents I know) would have happily attended proposed focus groups but they were never offered.

I do want to add that my 3 year old is currently enrolled in Summit Pre-K, our older son is a recent graduate of the kindergarten and we are very happy thus far with their education. But, as we truly believe kids these days need to be in school as much as possible, we'd elected to give our eldest a full-day kindergarten experience by enrolling him in the on-site -run Kinderquest program, with which we were happy but it's not an academic program.

At the end of the day, the proposed pilot seems to have been aborted due to funds which is what I'd most like to address here.  

In the surveys, several proposed fees were mentioned but nothing was ever mentioned as to what those numbers were comprised from, so it was well-nigh impossible to make an educated decision as to whether the figures seemed at all appropriate.  

I was glad to see a breakdown in Dr. Parker's letter but I think it was a little too late . . and I hope that as these discussions continue there is a chance at more open dialogue and explanation of the programming process as it develops.

Stay tuned . . . and attend the last few community meetings which I will also be blogging about here.  Here's the info on those: http://www.summit.k12.nj.us/community_planning/