New Full-Day Kindergarten Proposal Considered in Summit

Members of the Summit Board of Education are considering ideas for a full-day kindergarten program that would begin September 2014.

Education Committee Chairman Edgar Mokuvos said the potential program would not have as full of a scope as the one proposed in the board’s five-year plan that was rejected by the Summit Board of School Estimate in May.

Mokuvos said the direction of the board over the past few months has been to identify a pilot program that would be cost-neutral and not require money to be spent on facilities.

Specifically, he said the program would use the existing facilities at the Wilson Primary Center currently being used by The Connection. The program rejected in May had been estimated to cost more than $5 million to expand facilities.

Mokuvos explained that Assistant Superintendent of Business and Board Secretary Louis Pepe is looking into the financial data to figure out what the district would need to charge.

He said the idea would be that the revenue from a certain amount of parents signing up for the program would pay for their respective children while also allowing the opportunity for a “needs-blind admission.” The process would provide scholarships to families that either can’t pay anything or need to pay a reduced amount to participate.

Once Pepe provides those numbers, Mokuvos said the education committee will confer and bring a recommendation to the full board.

Since the potential program would begin in a little more than a year, Mokuvos said it is essential to work out all details quickly to give The Connection as much of a fair warning as possible.

Superintendent Nathan Parker suggested all decisions be made by September to avoid using up significant staff time to research and develop the program. Board Vice President Celia Colbert stressed that the decision be made earlier because “parents are making decisions for their kids before November.”

Additionally, the board discussed the steps the district is taking to work with community-wide kindergarten programs that currently exist outside of the district to make sure they work toward similar educational goals. Assistant Superintendent Julie Glazer said she currently has meetings set up with Central Presbyterian Church, St. Teresa of Avila Parish and The Learning Circle at the YMCA to discuss this topic.

“The Jewish Community Center is opening a full-day kindergarten in the fall,” Glazer said. “We spent hours with them, talking about what our curriculum is, what our resources are and what they could do to have something similar in place.”

One of the major obstacles, she said, is that all of these external programs haves different focuses.

“Some are day cares, some are academic, some are Montessori and some are church-based,” Glazer said. “They are trying to be responsive to what we are saying while staying true to their missions.”

Board President Gloria Ron-Fornes said it is important to continue the district’s partnerships with The Connection and other community-wide programs “because we have to do whatever is the best education for our students.”