Will Oak Grove District 68 offer free, full-time kindergarten?
Oak Grove District 68 officials are expected to decide Thursday whether full-day kindergarten should be offered next year at no additional cost to parents.
A pair of special meetings are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. at the junior high auditorium, 1700 S. O'Plaine Road in Green Oaks, to get public input and reach a decision on what has become an ongoing issue.
During the first meeting, the board will go into a closed session to discuss potential personnel moves that may be needed depending on what choice is made.
Public comment is scheduled before the board approves a kindergarten model for 2017-18 and then goes into another closed session. Thursday's sessions are a continuation of a meeting last week that lasted several hours.
"I fully expect there will be a vote - parents have got to know," Superintendent Lonny Lemon said.
Lemon has recommended staying with the current set up, in which the district offers half-day kindergarten at no cost and charges $3,700 for the full-day program. Lemon said eliminating the charge would cost the district $244,000 to $250,000 annually.
He said the unknown status of state funding is a factor faced by District 68 and other districts when determining how to allocate resources. Full-day, free kindergarten is a board priority, but it is a matter of finding funds, Lemon said.
"I also have a fiduciary responsibility. Given the unknowns with the state, that terrifies me. What's the trade-off going to be?" he said.
District staffers say they can't fit required Common Core state standards into a half day of kindergarten instruction. Another group called the "Third Grade Team" said students in full-day kindergarten have greater reading and math gains than those in half-day classes.
"Viewing half-day kindergarten as a vehicle for saving money is shortsighted," the group wrote in a letter to the school board.