District 191 approves free full-day kindergarten
Program will begin next year
by John Gessner
Thisweek Newspapers
Kindergarten teacher Jonalyn Lippka was all smiles Jan. 19 after watching the School Board approve free full-day kindergarten in Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191.
She and several other district kindergarten teachers turned out for the historic vote, which officials say will extend the proven academic benefits of full-day kindergarten to the students who need it most but whose families can least afford it.
“Ecstatic and excited” was Lippka’s reaction to the program, which will begin next fall.
“Kindergarten isn’t what it used to be,” said Lippka, who teaches full-day kindergarten at Edward Neill Elementary. “It used to be about play and socialization. That is still important. But now we are required to teach standards and have the students meet those standards by the end of the year. It’s knowing all their letters and knowing all their sounds and being able to read simple sentences. And they’re required to know 25 sight words by the end of the year.
“When they walk out the door at the end of the year, you pray that all of them are reading, writing, counting to 115 or higher, and meeting all of those standards that we need to cover in a year so they are prepared for first grade.”
Forty-five percent of district kindergartners are enrolled in the district’s fee-based, full-day program, called Kindergarten Plus. Forty-three percent of kindergartners who qualify for free or subsidized lunch are enrolled.
The program costs $3,132 a year, or $348 a month. Scholarships can knock the cost down to $87 a month for the neediest families, but even that is out of reach for many, according to Superintendent Randy Clegg.
“All of our students, regardless of their family income, should be afforded the right and opportunity to benefit from our public full-day kindergarten program,” Clegg told the board.
The district funded full-day, everyday kindergarten for all students in 2003-04, but it was lost to budget cuts the next year.
A University of Minnesota study tracking the 2003-04 kindergarten class showed academic gains from the program. During the kindergarten year, students closed achievement gaps by race, English proficiency and socioeconomic status, according to U’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement.
The group entered and exited first and second grades “ahead of the national average” in achievement, according to the study.
“Statistically significant differences in scores of at-risk and not at-risk students (based upon free or reduced lunch, racial group, and ELL status) were found at nearly every point in first, second and third grade,” the study said.
This time, Clegg said, funding problems won’t scuttle full-day kindergarten anytime soon.
The district will use part of its mushrooming allocation of compensatory aid — state money based on the number of students who qualify for free or subsidized meals — to fund the program.
The cost is $1.5 million for next year, when the district’s compensatory funding is estimated to reach $5.4 million. Compensatory funding totaled only $897,000 in 2003-04 and wasn’t used for full-day kindergarten.
The number of district students qualifying for free or subsidized meals has risen from 18 percent in 2002 to more than 40 percent today, “and over 50 percent in several of our elementary schools,” Clegg said.
Board members Jim Schmid and Paula Teiken joined the unanimous vote for full-day kindergarten but challenged using only compensatory funds to pay for it.
Teiken said she worries that taking compensatory money “off the top” for kindergarten will deplete funding for academic interventions with struggling students in other grades.
“My hope would be that we can cross-fund it using different funds,” said Teiken, noting that the state Legislature controls compensatory funding levels.
“If we pull it out of one bucket, and that bucket goes away, we have to find another bucket,” Schmid said.
Board Member Dan Luth, who voted against full-day kindergarten for 2003-04 out of concern the funding wasn’t sustainable, insisted compensatory funding based on “the very makeup of our student body” is the best option now.
“Compensatory funding is the appropriate means to fund this,” Luth said. “It will be sustainable.”
Clegg said the district is working on a new formula to reallocate the remaining compensatory funding among schools. A benefit of the new formula will be that some schools qualifying for little of the school-based funding will now get enough to meet their needs for interventions, Clegg said.
“There will be some adjustments” in compensatory funds schools get, he said. “There will be no significant impact because of this implementation.”
Schmid made a motion seconded by Teiken to fund half of full-day kindergarten with compensatory funds and half with “non-student contact” funds. It failed. The pair then voted for the original motion.
“I will support the all-day kindergarten because it’s the right thing to do,” Schmid said.
A half-day option will be available to parents, who will be able to pick their children up before lunch break. Noon bus service will be eliminated, saving $150,000 to $200,000.
“Core instruction” will be emphasized in the morning, when both full- and half-day students are present, according to Chris Lindholm, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning. Enrichment, deeper teaching of concepts and interventions will be emphasized the rest of the day, he said.
John Gessner is at john.gessner@ecm-inc.com.
Well since kindergarten teachers know everything and I wish one would become president- and they are this nations unrecognized hero’s- I support whatever they support (the teachers- the ones who are IN the classroom actively working with our children). Still I think it’s sad that “kindergarten is so different today”. My daughter is in half day and while we are ecstatic with the teachers at Rahn Elementary, there is no time for creative play any more because there is so much pressure on these educators to hit all of these “standards”. Let’s remember that each September when children enter Kindergarten, some of them have just turned 5 (as in, they are a lot like a 4 year old, as in, they have been alive for four brief years). We need to ask ourselves if a 4 or 5 or 6 year old child’s brain and emotional capacity is ready and open to those standards. I can see how free full day benefits children who are behind or children who are at-risk. And as long as their is the half day option for those of us who don’t want our kids in an institution at age 5 for 8 hours a day, I support what the teachers feel is important for the kids who need to be there an entire day. Perhaps we might want to consider helping parents understand these standards BEFORE their children enter Kindergarten and maybe even offer the parents some understanding of how to implement these standards at home the Summer before Kindergarten or sooner versus lamenting how un-prepared they are when school starts. Every parent is told to read as many books as possible and then have their child assessed before starting Kindergarten but that’s it. I’d like a list. The assessment and the readiness program REALLY needs a revamp. It would be amazing if all preschools, ECFE’s, etc were given some regulation on these standards. Last rant: The 191 Welcome Center provides a 1 star experience in terms of helpfulness, knowledge, organization, process, personnel, shall I go on?
Thank you for covering this topic!
TZ – Thanks for sharing all your comments. With regard to offering some advice to parents on preparing their children for kindergarten, we do offer a class called “Ready! for Kindergarten” through Community Education. Classes are free, start soon and are offered all spring. You can read more about them at http://bit.ly/w0CNNb.
I’m also very sorry to hear about your experience with the Welcome Center. Obviously, we’d like very much to fix any problems that are happening. If you’d like to give more specifics, please feel free to contact me at atinklenberg@burnsville.k12.mn.us or by phone at 952-707-2042.
Thanks,
Aaron Tinklenberg
ISD 191 Communications Coordinator