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Schools

Superintendent: Lottery for Full-day Kindergarten Should Go

Pilot program poised to lost its state aid

If full-day kindergarten classes are going to continue in the , the lottery system used for enrollment should be abandoned.

That was part of the message Wednesday night from Superintendent Bill Gretzula as parents and teachers continued to lobby for the survival and expansion of the program which began in 2007-2008.

“Bensalem may have a casino but we shouldn't be gambling on our children's futures and we shouldn't be relying on a lottery,” Gretzula said during Wednesday's school board meeting.

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The proposed state budget eliminates $694,000 in block grant money for the local district, a portion of which has fully funded its pilot full-day kindergarten program. A lottery system is used to pick the students who get to take part in six classes. While 120 students got lucky this school year, 260 continue to attend half-day kindergarten classes.

The school board voted last year to continue the program for this and next school year, provided that the state block grant funding was still available. The hope had been to soon move to “universal full-day kindergarten for any student ready for it or whose family wanted it,” Gretzula explained last month.

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The district's preliminary budget for the next school year includes $225,000 of local money to pay for the equivalent of three teachers needed to continue the six classes of full-day kindergarten. But Gretzula told Patch after Wednesday's board meeting that while he could live with the current program for one more year, he would rather see it expanded and offered to about 300 students.

“I don't believe we have the space or finances for universal kindergarten but I do believe we can have two sections in each school, with 25 students in each class,” he said.

That would double the number of classes in each of the district's six elementary schools; increase class size from 20; and hike the enrollment percentage to 80 percent, he explained.

There are some parents who want their children to remain in half-day classes, he said.

The district, he said, needs to develop criteria to assess the readiness of those students whose parents want their children in the full-day classes.

“There are different screening techniques,” to assess social and emotional development and reading and math schools, he said. And those assessments, he added, are best done in the summer because 5 year olds can progress very quickly over a short period of time. Doing the assessments in the summer would require additional funding, the superintendent said.

Support for the program and its expansion continued Wednesday night as the board, which must soon make a decision, heard from four parents and one teacher.

Elaine Lodge, who teaches full-day classes at Rush Elementary School and has also taught half-day sessions, said the latter simply don't provide enough time for reading, writing and math.

“To cram all that in in 2-and-a-half hours is just not enough time,” she said while standing at the podium with the district's two other full-day kindergarten teachers.

Gretzula has said, given attrition, the three teachers would not likely lose their district employment should the school board vote to end the pilot program.

Jaime Gormley of Prescott Court, the mother of one child in the full-day class along with a 2 year old, said she has seen firsthand the benefits of the pilot program.

“I see how much my son has benefited in reading, and number and letter recognition,” she said.

“My son's experience has been so memorable,” added Heather Fedor of Brandywine Court in reference to her autistic child who was a winner in the lottery.

Another of her three children attended half-day kindergarten and “that program does not compare,” she said.

Board President Heather Nicholas said she has visited five of the six full-day classes and two half-day classes and she agrees.

“It's amazing to see the differences,” she said.

Gretzula said he has received calls from some parents saying their kindergarten-aged children have been deprived by attending half-day classes.

“I don't think the kids have been deprived because we are teaching better than ever before. But the reality is that given more time, kids are going to enjoy more success,” he said.

The superintendent said an in-depth presentation on the progress of students in full-day kindergarten is planned for the board's April 27 meeting.

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