Farewell to Kindergarten Enrichment

Now that Ridgefield's incoming kindergartners will be attending full-day school in the fall, many local businesses offering kindergarten enrichment are finding new and creative ways to fill what are about to become voids in their programs.

Overall, school directors don't seem terribly concerned about how the loss of the enrichment students will affect business.

But some programs were solely for kindergartners.

Wizards and Rainbows, owned by Debbie Aubry (where my daughter is currently a student), is solely a kindergarten enrichment program that Aubry has run from her home in the Farmingville area for 17 years.

Aubry has had to rethink her entire focus and has decided to run a transitional kindergarten program in the mornings and then an after-school day care for Farmingville students until 6:30 p.m. which will include homework help and outdoor play. Transitional kindergarten gives younger kids an extra year to develop between preschool and kindergarten.

"I am certainly turning a corner here," said Aubry, who added that no matter what her program is, she will always allow the kids time for outdoor exploration and play in a safe, nurturing environment.

Ridgefield Community Kindergarten director Melissa Kovack was a bit more concerned about her program's loss.

RCK will also offer transitional kindergarten, and Kovack hopes that there will be high enough enrollment to keep their current enrichment teacher's job.

"Financially, it's a tough loss for us," she said.

The name of RCK's "Pre-K" will change to "TK," and the program will run from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Other schools with multiple programs are handling the loss of their kindergarten enrichment programs by re-purposing their enrichment curricula and increasing program options.

St. Stephen's Preschool director Yvonne Petitmaire said she will not add any new programs or try to replace the loss of the kindergarten enrollment. Rather, teachers will utilize the curriculum they have built and infuse it into the existing preschool curriculum.

"We go with the flow," Petitmaire said. She added that while full-day kindergarten has benefits, there are some enrichment offerings that won't be replicated, like St. Stephen's programs in collaboration with the Aldrich Museum.

"There's a lost and there's a found," she said.

In order to make up for their potential income loss, Almost Home day care director Jennifer Soodek will be flexible with parents and individualize schedules to the needs of the family.

They will continue to offer a TK program, though they have not seen more TK kids as of yet.

"There's always a way to work things out," Soodek said, noting that they are keeping all of their teachers so far.

"We are totally flexible," she said. "We've done all the programs, we have all the staff."

They will still see kindergarten-aged children next year as they continue their before school and after school care programs.

The preschool at Jesse Lee is offering a similarly flexible program in the fall.

Director Kathy Carroll said they will adapt their existing enrichment space and curriculum and make it "pre-school enrichment" and an all-day pre-K option.

They will also offer a five-day-a-week TK program.

"We're sad," Carroll said of losing her enrichment program, but she had been preparing for this program change and "had a plan just in case."