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Full-day kindergarten might not be coming to the Council Rock School District any time soon.
At the three-hour-long ad hoc Master Capital Planning Committee Monday evening, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Susan Elliott made a presentation to the public and provided data to back up her statements.
“The research on full-day kindergarten program has shown some initial gains during the kindergarten year, but those gains diminished after a couple of years,” Elliott told the committee.
During her presentation before the board, Elliott cited various pieces of research about kindergarten programs and noted that many didn’t have long-term benefits. She talked about partial, full-day and targeted kindergarten programs and how they may work in Council Rock.
Elliott said a full-day kindergarten program would not just include looking at staffing of teachers but also food service workers and aides. Another issue that would need to be considered is scheduling recess time.
The total annual cost for full-day kindergarten for four classes of 15 students would be $583,600 per year.
The district would likely need to establish new criteria to determine what students would need a targeted full-day kindergarten, Elliott said.
The current partial-day kindergarten program in Council Rock operates morning and afternoon sessions.
The committee plans to revisit the topic of full-day kindergarten as the capital planning for the district continues.
The upcoming remaining committee meetings are scheduled for Thursday, March 30; Monday, April 24; and Monday, May 22. The meetings will be held at 7 p.m. at the Chancellor Center at 30 N. Chancellor St. in Newtown Borough.
