Dist. 23 panel wants to try full-day kindergarten

The Prospect Heights School District 23 full-day kindergarten committee told the school board on Wednesday it's recommending two classes of full-day kindergarten for what the committee called at-risk kids.

If the board approves the measure, the classes would be implemented at Ross and Eisenhower elementary schools next year, district officials said. Each school would offer one class to the district's kindergartners, numbering about 140 kids. Hours for full-day kindergarten would be the same for the rest of the grades, from 8:25 a.m. to 2:25 p.m.

The committee considered three options as to whom to offer the program. The district could have at-risk kids who scored in the bottom 20 percent on assessment tests try it next year or use a lottery system to determine attendance. The third option was to offer it to all, but that was the least likely as there's not the space to do so, said Superintendent Greg Guarrine.

The committee decided to recommend the first option since research showed that at-risk kids benefited the most from attending full-day kindergarten, said Bonnie Zbaraz, an Eisenhower kindergarten teacher.

This pilot program would be used to determine if the district wants to offer it to all kindergartners, she said.

A survey of parents of incoming kindergartners this year said they preferred full-day. Forty-nine Ross parents and 19 Eisenhower parents said they wanted full-day, Zbaraz said. Only six parents at Ross and five parents at Eisenhower wanted half-day kindergarten.

The board will discuss and vote on the recommendation at a special meeting from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Grodsky Administration Building, 700 N. Schoenbeck Road.