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District 68 drops tuition for full-day kindergarten

Oak Grove District 68 is searching for funding sources to pay for the full-day, tuition-free kindergarten to be offered next year.

The school board in a special meeting Thursday voted 6-1 to make the full-time option available in 2017-18 at no cost to parents, overriding a recommendation from Superintendent Lonny Lemon to wait a few years until another debt could be repaid.

Lemon has been tasked with finding about $244,000 - the approximate amount received this year from the $3,700 per student tuition fee.

"In essence, they said, 'You've got to find the money,'" Lemon said. "However, if we come up short, they agreed we'll take it out of district reserves."

So far, Lemon said he has identified about $130,000 from two sources to offset the cost. The first comes from an after-school program the district took over and has been monitoring.

"After two years, we're pretty sure we can set aside $65,000 there," Lemon said.

Planned restroom renovations and ceiling tile replacement, estimated at between $65,000 to $80,000, will be deferred, he added.

The possibility of full-day, tuition-free kindergarten has been on the district's to-do list for a while, but the question has been timing.

"It was never a question of if, it was a question of when," said Lane Hasler, the board's vice president and founding chairman of its finance committee.

Hasler was the lone vote against going tuition-free, saying the budget is tight and he doesn't want to use funds designated for ongoing building maintenance.

"The dispute was, 'Should we do it now?'" Hasler said.

Supporters noted students who attend full-day kindergarten do better in math and reading going forward than those in the half-day program. They also contend state-required learning standards can't be taught in a half-day program.

After a recent public meeting lasting several hours, the board asked for more information on the options ahead of the special meeting last week.

"Lonny came up with some alternatives that spread the risk around a bit, so a majority of the board was comfortable with that," Board President Jennifer Manski said.

About $1.2 million of the $1.5 million District 68 borrowed to complete a multiyear, $14 million renovation at the single school district is outstanding. Lemon recommended waiting until the debt was paid in three or four years to proceed with the no-tuition kindergarten option.

"We've had preregistration of our kindergartens already and they've been kind of hanging on (the school board) decision," Lemon said.

Sixty-six children had been registered for the full-day, tuition-based program and 17 for the free, half-day session. Whether or how much those numbers will change is unclear.

@dhmickzawislak

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