Batavia Schools To Consider Dropping Full-Day Kindergarten Enrichment For 2012-13

Editor's note: We have posted our update to this story, which includes parent comments from the Oct. 25 Batavia School Board meeting. To read this story, click .

The Batavia School Board on Oct. 25 heard the school district's recommendation to get rid of a program next year that provides full-day learning for kindergarteners.

Batavia Public Schools administrators will recommend the elimination of the Kindergarten After-School Enrichment Program for the 2012-13 school year.

Batavia School district leaders presented this recommendation to the School Board at their regular public meeting. The meeting began at 7 p.m., Tues. Oct. 25, in the , 335 W. Wilson St.

The district will also recommend providing a full-day kindergarten program for at-risk students, which would include groups such as low-income students.

The School Board would have to authorize cutting the enrichment program. School leaders want them to make this decision by next month's Nov. 15 School Board meeting.

The After-School Enrichment Program is a tuition-based program offered to kindergarten students. This program is currently the only way a kindergartener can receive a full day of learning in the Batavia public school system.

The proposal to drop the kindergarten offering has raised concerns among parents, especially those that plan to use the program for their kindergarteners in the 2012-13 school year.

"I think you’re going to have an adverse relationship with people who say ... 'I didn’t even have a chance to get into a full-day (kindergarten) option,'" Parent Christy Kulczycki said.

Why Cut Full-Day Kindergarten?

The district wants to change the kindergarten program so teachers can focus on the students that need full-day programming the most: the at-risk students.

Batavia school leaders also make the argument that the benefits of full-day kindergarten for regular students only carry forward for a few grade levels.

A school district memo that details the recommendation says:

"In an analysis of the benefits of full day programming in our own district, our research found few lasting academic effects for students beyond the third grade except in the performance of our at-risk students."

The changes made to the programming would need to go through an extensive planning process. Decisions would need to be made in these areas:

• Program size
• Identification of program entrance/exit criteria
• Learning standards and curriculum
• Extended learning opportunities
• Professional development for teaching and support staff
• Diagnostic and achievement assessments to guide instruction and measure growth
• Parental involvement expectations and guidelines

Who's At Risk?

The recommendation to cut full-day kindergarten does not specify how students would be considered at risk.

The memo made some references to low-income or minority children, but it does not specify whether those characteristics would indeed qualify a student for the program.

Batavia Patch attempted to get the definition of an at-risk student from the district on Monday. A Batavia Patch reporter was told that the information would be included in tonight's presentation.

Christy Kulczycki is also curious to know how the district will define the at-risk students for this program.

"It is just going to be based on income, and whether they are native speakers, or are they going to look at learning disabilities?" she said.

No-Luck Lottery

Many parents feel it’s unfair for some kindergarteners to get into the full-day enrichment while others are denied admission using a lottery system.

“For the 2011-2012 school year, (the lottery) was used in four of our elementary schools because of demand that exceeded the number of available seats,” said Brad Newkirk, the district's chief academic officer, in the memo.

With the removal of the lottery system and other planning involved in after-school enrichment, principals would be able to notify parents sooner that their child was accepted into the program, the memo said.

Currently kindergarten registration starts in March with parents giving their preference for the a.m. or p.m. session and interest in the ASEP Program. At the same time parents are indicating preferences for the program, the district is deciding on its staff levels for next year. All of these variables determine where students are placed, Newkirk said in the memo. 

Even though parents are required to make a $50 deposit to confirm their interest, this isn’t enough to stabilize the enrollment, Newkirk said.

“Determining staffing and planning for the next school year are complicated by shifting enrollment,” he said in the memo.

Special(s) Connection

The school district's memo does not mention that the enrichment program was a frequent topic during .

Parents began to raise the issue of equity between the half-day kindergarteners and the kindergarteners who had half-day classes and the enrichment program.

Budget cuts forced the district to remove specialized instruction in music, art and physical education from the half-day kindergarten students, but not the enrichment students.

After parents brought this issue up to the School Board, the and its actual effects on students.

If the enrichment program is cut, the district could share information on alternative programs in the community, according to the memo.

A Refresher on the Enrichment Program

The Kindergarten After-School Enrichment Program is an optional program for students who have regular AM kindergarten.

For an extra cost, $250 a month max, kindergarteners receive additional instruction in the afternoon, or what is traditionally the second half of the school day for first through fifth graders.

The program is meant to "extend and enrich the kindergarten experience," according to the school district memo on the recommendation.

Board members in past meetings talked about how the program was supposed to be a place for practice and reinforcement of concepts learned during the regular kindergarten program.

Check batavia.patch.com after the meeting tonight for more details from the district's proposal and reaction to this proposed kindergarten cut.

To read the actual school board memo on this issue, click here to download the PDF. The memo is on pages 102-105.