Survey On Full-Day Kindergarten Seeks Parents’ Views

By Eliza Hallabeck

The school district is looking for parents of children who will be entering kindergarten within the next three years to add their views to a study designed to look into the possibility of switching to a full-day kindergarten in the district.

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson stressed the survey is to see the feasibility of implementing full-day kindergarten in the district.

“This is not a done deal,” Dr Robinson said.

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Gejda said the district will be using two groups of information to determine how parents feel about full-day kindergarten. One piece of the information will be from parents who currently have students in kindergarten responding to a take home survey, and the other is parents expecting to have incoming kindergarteners over the next three years responding to the survey online at www.surveymonkey.com/s/MS7QT5C.

A link to the survey is also available on the district’s website at www.newtown.k12.ct.us. The deadline to parents to respond is February 18.

“This is vital information and your responses will help us,” the website explains near the link.

The topic of an enrollment study and the possibility of looking into full-day kindergarten in the district was tabled during the Board of Education’s meeting on January 12 at the Newtown Municipal Center.

Dr Robinson first introduced the idea to look into full-time kindergarten for the district during the school board’s meeting on December 1, when she said full-day kindergarten has been linked to increasing Connecticut Mastery Test scores for third grade students.

While increasing class time for kindergarteners, Dr Robinson said changing to a full-day kindergarten program in the district would eliminate a midday bus run for those classes, and, would move $255,877 in costs for transportation over the course of the school year to other area’s of the districts budget. Dr Robinson said it could help preserve 3.9 teaching positions.