EDITORIAL

Good step toward all-day K

Posted 8/26/14

Some is better than none. That adage fits the School Department’s decision to move ahead with all-day kindergarten at some schools, although it lacks the resources to do it across the city. …

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EDITORIAL

Good step toward all-day K

Posted

Some is better than none. That adage fits the School Department’s decision to move ahead with all-day kindergarten at some schools, although it lacks the resources to do it across the city. Starting tomorrow, all-day K will be operating at Warwick Neck, Oakland Beach, John Brown Francis, Robertson and Scott Schools. As Superintendent Richard D’Agostino said in a story reported by Matt Bower last Thursday, “We looked at it and determined it’s feasible, the numbers are there.”

In other words, kindergarten enrollment at those schools declined to the level where it was no longer necessary to hold morning and afternoon sessions. While the department ran all-day K at selected schools – the early childhood center at Drum Rock and a single class at Oakland Beach – the staffing and space to provide it universally was always cited as the reason not to do so. In addition to classroom renovation, the ongoing cost of all-day K was pegged at more than $2 million a year.

Such an expenditure, largely for additional teachers and assistants, was seen beyond the reach of the department’s budget until a school-named commission looked at enrollment trends and school consolidations. The focus of the commission was at the secondary level, where enrollments have dropped to the point where the city’s three junior and senior high schools are at less than 50 percent of the capacity. The proposal, which failed to gain School Committee approval, was to close Gorton, Aldrich and Vets and to re-purpose Vets as a middle school.

The middle school model, where sixth, seventh and eighth graders are in a single school, is used in most districts in the state. Warwick has junior highs, with seventh and eighth graders.

The middle school model would open classrooms at the elementary schools for all-day K. And equally, if not more significant, closing Aldrich and Gorton would generate the savings to make it financially viable.

With the School Committee now looking for an outside consultant to examine enrollment trends, and how the district should respond, we would hope that both middle schools and all-day K are in their sights.

Early childhood education has been recognized as critical to future development. Cranston Senator Hannah Gallo has pushed to make all-day K mandatory across the state and legislators have provided some funding, although not enough to make it universal.

Now, in Warwick at least, some school populations have dropped to the point where all-day K is offered without incurring the cost of added teachers and assistants.

D’Agostino and the School Committee have taken the right step in moving ahead with the program where they can. In fact, they are saving money, as it has reduced bus runs. Clearly, the goal should be to provide the same early start across the district. Declining enrollment in other schools may enable that but what’s needed, and the committee has thus far refrained from addressing, is a plan that considers the system’s aging buildings, drop in enrollment and programs – including all-day K – that best educate our children. We hope the committee will listen to the consultants they retain, although we can’t imagine their conclusions to be far different from those of the commission.

Meanwhile, the administration is stepping in the right direction.

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