U-46 snafu takes all-day kindergarten away from some

Elgin Area School District U-46's administration of a federal grant to help low-income kindergartners has left some parents and 33 kids feeling out in the cold.

Katie Hoggay is one of them.

Hoggay's son, 5-year-old Brolin Perkins, was accepted in June to an all-day program offered by the district to help incoming kindergartners who scored poorly on retention tests.

Although the program was not offered at Brolin's home school, Bartlett Elementary, the single mom from Bartlett bought a bunch of supplies and was prepared to send him to Ridge Circle Elementary, which along with Oakhill are the only two schools in U-46 where the program is offered. Both of those schools are in Streamwood.

But last week Hoggay said she was told by the district that her son didn't qualify because Brolin's home school was not a "Title I" school.

She is worried her shy and quiet son won't get the attention he needs in a class of 30-plus kids compared to the all-day program that has a class size of 18 pupils.

"He's traumatized because he has no idea of which school he's going to," Hoggay said of her son. "How can you tell me my son is accepted into a program only to kick him out days before school starts?"

Wednesday was the first day of classes for U-46.

Hoggay is angry and frustrated, and she expects the parents of 32 other kids who were accepted into the program to feel the same way.

"It's unfair they misled all of us," she said. (Because) "our town is supposedly richer than other towns, our town doesn't qualify. They told me if I lived in Elgin, I'd qualify."

Tony Sanders, the district's spokesman, said the district receives about $6 million a year in federal Title I funding that must be used at schools where at least half of the students are considered low income.

Sanders said the district plans to spend $800,000 on the extended kindergarten, but can only offer it to students at Title I schools. And Bartlett Elementary is not one of them.

Sanders called the gaffe a "regretful mistake" and said the district has notified all parents whose kids are affected. He said this is the first year the district is using Title I funds for extended kindergarten and perhaps that's where the error occurred.

"I can't imagine, from a parent's perspective, to get a call, e-mail or letter right before school starts," Sanders said. "For that, we are truly sorry."