Glen Ellyn School District 41 staff recommend implementing full-day kindergarten by 2018. Although, how such a program would be financed and what shape it would take in the district has yet to be approved.
“The administration believes in full-day kindergarten,” Superintendent Paul Gordon said.
The Board of Education will vote on the superintendent’s recommendation to pursue full-day kindergarten during the Feb. 23 board meeting. A “yes” vote will charge district staff with laying out plans for a full-day program and how it should be funded. Gordon said administration would offer a funding option to the board sometime next school year, once that happens. However, the school board will look much different by then. Twelve candidates are vying for three seats up for election in April.
“If the board doesn’t support full-day kindergarten, then why go down this (funding) path,” Gordon said.
There are three options to finance full-day kindergarten, which will require new construction with a cost between $15 million to almost $30 million. The options include modifying the current school buildings, building an early learning center or building a new K-5 school. Modifying and adding additional classrooms to the existing schools would be the least expensive option, with estimated costs of $14.9 million to $16.5 million. The early education center for pre-K and kindergarten students has an estimated cost of $21.7 million to $23.6 million.
Assistant Superintendent Karen Carlson shared some of the academic benefits of the full-day option, which include greater reading, writing and vocabulary skills, as well as stronger problem-solving abilities in mathematics.
But some board members remained unclear as to what a full-day program would actually look like when implemented. Board President John Kenwood said he wasn’t sure what a full-day kindergarten program would look like in the district. He said without a clearer plan, the board was essentially being asked to provide the administration with a vote of confidence.
Board member Erica Nelson said the board’s job is not to vote on curriculum but a vision to move the district forward.
Board member Drew Ellis said he generally likes the concept of a full-day program, but still could not wrap his head around the costs of the three proposals.
Gordon, though, said he strongly disagreed that his administration hadn’t provided enough information about full-day plans. He said the three facilities options to support the program included construction and operations expectations.
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Funding any one of the three plans will require a bond referendum. The earliest a referendum could be placed on the ballot would be 2016, which would give district officials time to seek the support of the voters.
The board already has held two community sessions during the past two weeks, and members said the more than 60 participants were generally supportive of implementing full-day programming, but were split over the options. Most residents who attended said they did not think building additions to each school would be an adequate solution. Residents seemed to be more evenly split over building a new early learning center of the new K-5 school, both of which would be at the site of the old Spalding Elementary School, a vacant parcel in the northeast quadrant of the district.
The last time the district placed a referendum on the ballot was in 2006, when voters rejected a $40 million plan to renovate the elementary schools and build additions to Hadley Junior High School.
Kelly Hane, a mother of two students at Churchill Elementary School, supported a full-day program, saying it would provide a stronger academic footing for kindergartners in the district. She also questioned how the lack of a full-day program would impact Glen Ellyn in attracting young families when other districts surrounding the community already offer full-day programming. She said the lack of a program would have a “negative effect” on property values in the community as young families would opt to move to other communities.
School board candidate Jeffrey Cooper expressed concern that residents living near the old Spaulding site have not been consulted about possible construction and what it will mean to their quality of life. He also criticized the administration for failing to provide greater detail on construction cots at Spalding, which could include widening of the streets to accommodate more traffic.
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