District 300 mulls full-day kindergarten

When the bell rang for lunch at Hampshire Elementary School one day last fall, a first-grader headed for the door, thinking he was done for the day.

Principal Jim Aalfs had to tell the student that unlike kindergartners, first-graders eat lunch at school before attending a second round of classes.

Aalfs hopes students will not only to avoid this mistake in the future, but be better prepared academically and socially for the first grade, through a full-day kindergarten he hopes to launch at the school.

At Monday's Community Unit District 300 school board meeting, the principal presented a proposal for a pilot program for full-day kindergarten starting in the 2010-11 school year.

Full-day kindergarten, he said, leads to higher test scores, better development of a child's social skills and more one-on-one instruction.

At-risk children on the district's east side will be able to enroll in extended-day kindergarten in the fall. The families of those kids will not have to pay for the program because it will be covered by a federal grant, district officials said.

But the program Aalfs is proposing would be open to all kindergarten-age children, not just those with risk factors. Because the more universal program would not be eligible for the grant, families would have to pay about $200 to enroll their kindergartners.

Students in the pilot program - District 300 educators hope at least 20 families will sign up - would take classes in core subjects in the morning, eat lunch about 10:30 a.m. and receive further instruction until dismissal at 2 p.m.

Before launching a similar program district-wide, officials cautioned Monday, the school board would first have to address the fact that the district currently does not have enough space to offer full-day kindergarten at all its schools.

"Because of the lack of space and limited financing - we would have a significant population base that would not have access to this program," Superintendent Ken Arndt said.

The board also would have to consider that the district would be competing with higher-cost, private kindergarten programs - potentially putting a dent in their business, Arndt added.

"I'm 100-percent behind this process, but there's a lot of questions that need to be addressed," he said.

The district's Education Committee will examine the proposal before it returns to the board for further consideration.