Menomonee Falls Will Add Junior Kindergarten: 4-Year-Olds Can Attend Program in Fall

By Amy Hetzner, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jan. 9–MENOMONEE FALLS — The village’s 4-year-olds can begin attending the School District in the fall after a decision Monday by the School Board to start a half-day junior kindergarten program in the 2007-’08 school year. Board members said program approval was based on academic reasons and also acknowledged the district budget won’t suffer with the addition of the program. Also, board members and district officials repeatedly pointed to the growing prevalence of 4-year-old kindergarten in Wisconsin as another reason to add the program. In Waukesha County, the Hamilton, Hartland-Lakeside, Merton, Oconomowoc and Richmond school districts offer 4-year-old kindergarten. The Elmbrook School Board is slated to vote tonight on whether to expand its fledgling junior kindergarten program. “We need to participate in this program because we’re almost the only ones who aren’t participating,” Menomonee Falls School Board member Linda Kons said. One opposing vote The board’s decision to launch 4-year-old kindergarten came on a 4-1 vote. Board member Ted Klumb, who voted against adding the program, said he did not feel it was a priority for the district, and that residents who contacted him were 5-to-1 against it. One opponent spoke to the board prior to its vote, arguing that studies on the subject were mixed and the junior kindergarten would be an “irresponsible waste of taxpayer dollars.”"It is very ill-thought-out and will end up costing more than you realize,” resident Claudia Pflughoeft said. But Pflughoeft was outnumbered at Monday’s meeting by supporters of 4-year-old kindergarten. Parent Patti Stevenson argued in favor of adding 4-year-old kindergarten, even though she said her children would be too old to take advantage of it. “I would prefer our schools to be on the cutting edge of education instead of playing catch-up at a later date,” she said. District administrators have said instituting the program will better prepare village youngsters for 5-year-old kindergarten and help them do better later in school. Although the district will operate the program, it is exploring partnerships with existing preschool providers in the village through a community-based model that has become more popular in the state. The district has six classrooms available in its schools to house such a program, with more expected to open after Thomas Jefferson Middle School is converted into a fifth elementary school, Superintendent Keith Marty said. The district has estimated the addition of the program with 125 to 135 children would add $30 to the property tax bill of the owner of a $250,000 home in 2007-’08 — on top of an expected tax bump of $83 because of construction projects approved in November’s referendum. But those taxes would fall by $120 the following year, Marty said, as state aid contributions allow the district to count its new pupils for additional revenue. Eventually, the district expects as many as 190 children could be enrolled in 4-year-old kindergarten. The program will require about $250,000 more in spending than the district would be able to raise in revenue in its first year of operation. But revenue increases in subsequent years could be used to restore district reserves tapped for the start-up costs, district officials have said.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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