Provided the Island Trees budget passes for the 2001-02 school year, the district will open in September with a full day kindergarten program.

At this week's Island Trees Board of Education meeting, the board unanimously approved the proposal that they have been considering since September, noting that they have discussed all aspects of the proposal and agree, "that a Full-Day Kindergarten Program would be of great value to the kindergarten children of Island Trees."

At the Sept. 27 meeting of the board of education, the board authorized Superintendent of Schools Richard Segerdahl to study the concept of Full-Day Kindergarten.

Segerdahl decided to study this concept now, in part, because an incentive is currently being offered by the state, which may not be offered in future years. This state aid initiative comes in the form of a program called LADDER (Learning, Achieving, Developing by Directing Education Resources), which was designed, in March 1997, to, among other things offer full-day kindergarten to all children. Through the LADDER program, Island Trees would receive a one-time lump sum amount of approximately $302,000 to assist in the transition to a full day kindergarten program.

This money will go toward preparing six classrooms at Stokes School and four classrooms at Sparke School for the incoming kindergartners. In order to do this, the district must move the business and administration offices from Stokes over to vacant rooms at Gallow. With that move, kindergartners will be able to continue through elementary school at the building where they began kindergarten.

In addition to the preparation costs, the district must also fund five additional teachers, an additional lunchroom monitor for each building, and the lease of an additional bus. These costs will be put in this year's budget as well as the cost of the transition, which will be paid back by the state the following year.

At a presentation about the full day kindergarten proposal, in December, current kindergarten teachers in the district spoke about why they felt the implementation of this program would be beneficial to Island Trees students. These teachers noted that with the new state standard early learning has become even more important than ever before. With additional time, according to the kindergarten teachers, teachers will have the opportunity to increase the emphasis on language arts/reading, socialization, math/science, and individualized instruction. One of the main advantages of having additional time in the school day, according to kindergarten teachers is the ability to implement small group instruction. By having extra hours in the day, the teachers are able to spend more time with each student. In general, the teachers and administration feel that this program is in the best interests of the students of the district.

Now that the board has approved this proposal, the superintendent will proceed with the necessary planning to allow for full day kindergarten to begin in September 2001.