Barrington Dist. 220 gives early support to all-day kindergarten

The Barrington Area Unit School District 220 board gave its support Tuesday night for a plan that would offer tuition-based full-day kindergarten starting in the 2015-2016 school year.

The board did not vote on the plan but directed staff members to continue to develop the program.

According to the plan laid out by Linda Klobucher, the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, the full-day program would cost parents around $4,500 for the school year, or around $125 per week.

The district offers a free half-day kindergarten program to all district students now. Under the proposed plan, two classrooms at each of the district elementary schools would be converted to suit the new full-day program.

If each of the kindergarten classrooms was filled with full-day program students, then the half-day students would be bused to the district's Early Learning Center at 40 E. Dundee Road in Barrington.

Board President Brian Battle said declining district enrollment has given the district the classroom space to offer full-day kindergarten.

Several board members expressed concern that if enrollment were to pick back up in the future, they would have to restrict or eliminate the new program.

Board member Wendy Farley said the plan had her unconditional support.

"I understand the possible future space constraints, but we've got the space now, so let's go," Farley said. "It is a well-thought-out plan and has a lot of options for a lot of different people."

Board member Richard Burkhart said he supported the plan but expressed concern that moving half-day students to the Early Learning Center would send the message to the community that the board didn't value the neighborhood school motto.

"The cohesiveness of the community starts there and ends there at graduation at Willow Creek. And I know I have friends that I found in kindergarten the first day," Burkhart said. "You can't put a dollar figure on that."

Superintendent Brian Harris said one variable that won't likely be known until much later is the number of people who will enroll their child in the program. He said the plan has flexibility built in to it.

Klobucher said if the interest exceeds the number of seats the district plans to have available next year, around 626 seats, they would implement a lottery system or first-come, first-served policy.

Several members of the district's kindergarten staff attended the meeting and most had smiles on their faces as they left the meeting.

"The parents that I've talked to are really in favor of full-day kindergarten," said Tim Gapp, kindergarten teacher at North Barrington Elementary School.

This is the first of several discussions the board will have on the full-day kindergarten program before a final vote.

Copies of the slideshow presented at the meeting and the memo outlining the plan are available on the district's website.