Dist. 200 to expand all-day kindergarten

Officials say the expansion of Wheaton Warrenville District 200’s all-day kindergarten program will come with its share of headaches. Space restrictions will force students at one school region to get bused to a different school. Also, officials expect to take some heat from parents who get turned away from the program because of a requirement that it be filled evenly with tuition-based and what the district calls “at-promise” students, or at-risk and low-income students who qualify for free and reduced lunches.

But they also say the headaches will be worth it because the point of the program is to help as many students as possible, even if they cannot admit them all.

“We will have people disappointed and we expect that,” Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services Margo Sorrick said Wednesday during a committee of the whole meeting. “But we have to start the journey somewhere.”

The plan will expand the program to offer one section of all-day kindergarten to between 24 and 26 students at each of the district’s 13 elementary schools. That number must be made up of half students who qualify for free and reduced lunches, whose parents will pay prorated tuition rates, and half of full-tuition students, whose parents will pay $4,000 per student enrolled.

The funding model aims to make the program cost-neutral for the district. Presently, nine schools have about 15 at-risk students enrolled in all-day kindergarten.

The district will still have half-day kindergarten for all students who fail to be admitted into the program. The board is expected to approve the changes at its Feb. 9 meeting.

If approved, a timeline for implementation includes an enrollment period in May. Sorrick said research showed that other districts have faced complaints of bias when they used a lottery system so District 200 will enroll on a first-come, first-served basis. However, board members wondered if that would cause chaos at the district office on enrollment days.

“We’ll be as organized as we can be,” she said. “I don’t expect this is going to be fun and the enrollment will be less fun. But I think this is the right thing to do for our students and we’ll do whatever it takes to get it done.”

As they discussed possible education gaps between students enrolled in the program and those who will take half-day classes, Director of K-12 Curriculum Kathie Bossier said the district is also considering using Title I funds to pay for a summer bridge program for free and reduced lunch students to help cover that gap.

All together the district expects to be able to accommodate 312 students, evenly balanced among the schools. A survey conducted during the 2008-09 school year showed that 48 percent of about 1,300 respondents said they would enroll their students in all-day kindergarten.

All-day kindergarten will offer similar programming as the half-day classes but will extend the times spent on the subjects.

“It’s depth, not breadth,” said Superintendent Brian Harris. “We’re going to have the same curriculum whether it’s the half-day or full-day. The difference is depth. We’re still teaching the math concept but we’re going further into it.”