School District OKs Changes: Bethlehem to Add Full-Day Kindergarten By 2009-10 Year, Close Early Learning Center

By Scott Waldman, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

Jun. 22–BETHLEHEM — Full-day kindergarten will be offered by the Bethlehem Central School District.

The Board of Education capped months of discussion on Wednesday night by approving the program, which will be added during the 2009-10 school year. The board also voted to send students to their home school, instead of the Early Learning Center.

In New York, 623 of 680 school districts — or 92 percent — offer full-day kindergarten, according to 2004-05 statistics from the state Education Department.

Last year, the state Board of Regents proposed making full-day kindergarten mandatory and Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been pushing for pre-K programs.

The district’s 300 kindergartners currently attend the Center at Slingerlands Elementary School.

While the move to full-day kindergarten had widespread support, the closing of the Early Learning Center has caused some consternation.

The staff of the Early Learning Center is concerned that an additional proposal to close the center and return students to their normal classrooms will negatively affect their education.

A letter sent by the center’s staff to the Board of Education has said that its centralized educational system makes it easier to give special education students individual attention, allows the younger students to have their own learning space away from older children and will break up a strong team that has worked together for a decade.

But Superintendent Les Loomis said the majority of parents who contacted the district were in favor of switching kindergarten classrooms to their home elementary school.

He praised the work of the center’s staff and said its closing was not a reflection of their work, but was done for practical and economic reasons.

The move will save the district $100,000 a year in transportation costs alone, Loomis said.

He said no teachers would lose their jobs as a result of the move and that the district would have to hire 10 additional teachers to fully staff the new program.

There is currently overcrowding in many district schools, Loomis said, but the construction of the new Eagle Elementary School — scheduled to open in fall 2008 — will create much more space.

Loomis said there will be no extra cost in the first year of the program because the district will be eligible for state grants. He said it will cost $379,400 in the second year of the program and $105,000 a year thereafter. Waldman can be reached at 454-5080 or by e-mail at swaldman@timesunion.com.

—–

To see more of the Albany Times Union, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesunion.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.