District 59 considers full-day kindergarten for all schools

The Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 school board is considering expanding a full-day kindergarten program to more schools.

District 59 has 11 elementary school buildings serving students in Elk Grove Village, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights. Presently, only the district's choice school, Ridge Family Center for Learning in Elk Grove Village, provides full-day kindergarten classes.

Since Ridge Family Center for Learning opened in 2001, demand for full-day kindergarten classes has increased and there are always more applicants than space available, District 59 spokeswoman Betsy Boswell said.

Roughly 50 kindergarten students from throughout the district were enrolled at Ridge for the 2008-2009 school year. Students are selected through a lottery system.

District officials are mulling a variety of options, including adding full-day kindergarten for only students in need or at-risk students who are trailing behind before starting kindergarten. Alternatively, officials may decide to offer the program to all 600 kindergarten students within the district. No cost estimates for different options are available yet.

"They are trying to look at a variety of different things to meet the needs of our students," said Nancy Wagner, assistant superintendent for instruction.

Full-day kindergarten is twice as long as regular kindergarten, which is currently offered to groups of students split over two sessions - 9:10 to 11:15 a.m. and 12:45 to 3:30 p.m. With full-day kindergarten, students would be in school from 9:10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

"The additional time will really allow us to spend more time on literacy, mathematics, science and social studies, and the other things like art and physical movement," Wagner said.

More than a third of students entering kindergarten in District 59 come in below expected performance, Wagner said.

"We've been very good about making sure our students all grow, but we are having trouble catching them up," Wagner said.

Wagner said a variety of factors contribute to a student's preparedness for kindergarten, such as the amount of oral language children are exposed to at home, the number of words spoken to them and whether parents read to their kids.

"We have a lot of families that either some of them don't know how to best prepare their kids for school - others are just doing their best or don't have enough time," Wagner said.

Since roughly 40 percent of District 59's students are from low-income families, having them in school all day would allow the district to provide free and reduced breakfasts and lunches, Wagner said

"It's much easier to learn when you are not hungry," she said.

Yet, depending on program costs and space availability, it's possible the school board will decide not to expand the program at all, officials said.

The school board won't discuss the matter again until its Sept. 14 board meeting.