Administrators Push All-Day Kindergarten

School adminstrators continued to advocate for adding all-day kindergarten to the district this coming fall at a packed Board of Education workshop on Wednesday night.

"In this one move, the district addresses six priorities," said assistant superintendent Pat Michael, whose PowerPoint presentation contained some overlap with the one presented to parents at Veteran's Park last week.

Adminstrators, who introduced the proposed 2010-11 budget on Monday, are arguing that declining enrollment projections combined with a negotiated low salary and no benefit-increase for teachers next year makes it a financially opportune time to add something that they believe Ridgefield should already be offering.

"It's best practice, it's 21st-century practice, it puts us on a level playing field with our DRG-A peers," Michael said of all-day kindergarten, referring to the town's District Reference Group of comparably top-notch school systems.

Fifty five to 70 percent of current kindergartners attend some sort of day-lengthening enrichment, she added.

The program would cost the district about $770,500 next year, according to Superintendent Deborah Low's Monday budget presentation.

For parents opposed to sending their children for a full school day, the plans provide for an extended-day option—which would be longer than half-day but shorter than full-day—but parents would be responsible for picking up their children if they selected that option.

There will be another all-day kindergarten presentation at Farmingville Elementary School on Feb. 4, and more may be subsequently scheduled.