D-300 weighs all-day kindergarten option

CARPENTERSVILLE – An all-day kindergarten pilot program in District 300 could see its first students in the fall, pending school board approval later this month.

The district’s Education Committee on Tuesday signed off on the proposal for a two-year pilot program at Hampshire Elementary School.

Parents at the school would have the option of sending their kindergartner to the normal half-day program or opting into the longer program for a $200-a-month fee. Currently, the state reimburses the district only for a half-day program for kindergarten, so the $200 fee would cover the additional cost.

Jim Aalfs, principal of Hampshire Elementary, said the full-day and half-day programs would follow the same schedule and lesson plan up through 10:45 a.m., when the half-day program dismisses. After that, the full-day class would review topics and focus on keeping the children engaged in learning and literacy.

“This is an educational program, not a baby-sitting program,” Aalfs said.

Depending on its success, the pilot program later would be expanded to other schools in the district, depending on space. The full roll-out of the program would look to include as many buildings as possible, and arrangements would be made to try to open the program to students whose schools do not have the classroom space to offer the program.

The pilot was proposed for the two-year time frame to allow the district to collect more data at the kindergarten level, and see how well the half-day and full-day students do once they are put in the same first grade classrooms.

Aalfs told the committee Tuesday that he has discussed the proposal with all 47 of the families with a child entering kindergarten at his school in the fall and 23 of the families expressed interest in the option.

“Some parents were interested, but others said their child just wasn’t ready yet,” Aalfs said.

A number of schools on the district’s east side will offer special grant-funded extended-day kindergarten next year that focuses mainly on vocabulary to help those students get up to their grade level.