Charge for full-day kindergarten in Batavia approved

Families who want their students to attend kindergarten all day this fall in Batavia will have to pay for it - but maybe not as much as initially proposed.

The Batavia school board this week approved charging up to $250 per child per month. The board, however, asked administrators to figure a way that parents paying a fee don't end up subsidizing students who would get the program for free due to financial limitations, especially since the extra instruction is not required by law.

The board wants the fee determined using the exact number of students that sign up for the program, school board member Kristin Behmer said.

The district is charging a fee to cover costs of the program, which state funding paid for when it first started in 2001.

District administrators had recommended $250 by factoring the costs to pay the program's teachers along with the maximum number of 288 vacancies. This year, more than 270 children are in full-day kindergarten at six elementary schools.

School officials wanted to have a fee in place for this week's kindergarten previews at which parents received registration packets. Parents are being asked to sign up for the program no later than March 19 so the district can figure out how many classes to offer and how many teachers are needed.

Kris Monn, the district's assistant superintendent for finance, acknowledged that it is kind of a "chicken and egg" situation - parents may be leery of signing up if they don't know the exact fee, but the district needs to know the number attending so it can figure out the fee. And what if children leave the program midyear - should the district then readjust the fee, he wondered.

State law requires the district to offer only half-day kindergarten, and no child is required to attend school until age 7.

St. Charles offers full-day kindergarten, and charges $250 a month per pupil.

"Academically, it doesn't really show a lot of growth," Behmer said of full-day kindergarten compared to half-day kindergarten. A Batavia committee that studied the matter reported that while full-day students initially have higher reading scores than those who attend a half-day, by the end of second grade there are no appreciable differences in the scores. And although full-day kindergartners are at an advantage in endurance and social skills for first grade, the half-day kids catch up by the second semester, the committee said.

Children who are eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches won't be charged the fee, nor will special-education students whose individualized education plans require a full day of educational services.

The district is reviewing the costs of many of its programs, as it prepares its next budget. A financial forecast presented in January warned the district could lose as much as $6 million in state funding during the 2010-11 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

"I don't really see anything else off the table," Behmer said, but noted that the board is considering cutting some programs' budgets by 10 percent or more, and raising fees for extracurricular activities.