SRS says 'yes' to full-day kindergarten

Starting next fall, Swan River School will offer full-day kindergarten.

The school board agreed to move forward from offering part-day to full-day kindergarten at its May 11 meeting.

"We think it's the right decision right now," Principal Peter Loyda said.

In past years, the majority of parents had not been interested in full-day kindergarten. That changed recently with more parents inquiring about and requesting it, Loyda said.

Many other schools in the area have all-day kindergarten, including Bigfork Elementary School. Students who participate in full-day kindergarten tend to be better prepared for first grade, teacher Sue Stephens said.

Stephens opened up the idea to parents at a recent kindergarten meeting. Most seemed excited about the possibility, Stephens told the board.

The five or so parents at the meeting who just wanted half-day kindergarten will still have that option, Loyda said.

The benefit for SRS is also financial in a time the school is dealing with a deficit in its budget for next year. More students enrolled full time mean more funding for the school.

Stephens said she contacted the Montana Office of Public Instruction earlier this spring about the possibility.

The start-up funds for all-day kindergarten are gone, she was told, but if the school gets in an application for additional Average Number Belonging, or the enrollment calculation used to determine a district's per-student funds, before June 1, it will receive 100 percent of funds for this year's kindergartners — an increase of about $33,000 for the school's budget.

Stephens said she did not anticipate many extra costs associated with the extension.

"I have plenty of materials at this point," Stephens said of her needs.

She did say she may need additional rest mats to give students downtime during a full-day schedule.

Stephens also paid visits to other full-day kindergarten classes in the Valley, including Elrod Elementary School in Kalispell, to get a feel of how it works.

"I'm actually getting excited," Stephens said. "(Full-day kindergarten), that's my new challenge for the year."

Stephens is already in a full-time position that has been part kindergarten and part physical education, music and Title I.

Her non-kindergarten duties will likely be reallocated to staff members whose assignments may be reduced through budget cuts in order to still give them full-time employment, Loyda said.

BUDGET

The SRS board will take a look at potential cuts in the coming weeks to make up for the roughly $50,000 deficit in its 2010-11 budget.

Loyda has sent out a number of recommended potential cuts to the board that will be discussed and some may be adopted at an upcoming meeting.

"We have explored many ideas," Loyda said. "These aren't easy. I've never heard in my 20 years of a budget being a good budget. I have to look at the good of the whole."

Full-time kindergarten was one of the proposals and the only one that's already been approved.

Many of the position cuts or assignment cuts would be dealt with by internal reallocation rather than rehiring, Loyda said.

Possibilities include cutting the part-time library aide, a full-time Title I staff member and a building aide, as well as reducing the assignments for guidance counselor and technology lab.

Other options include covering the seventh- and eighth-grade art class internally, streamlining office staffing, changing the principal position to include some teaching responsibilities, and cuts from line items for supplies, workshops and conferences and the entire budget for new textbooks.

The band program could be reduced back to two classes instead of three classes, as it has been until this year.

Options are still being explored with the school's employee health insurance to help defray costs.

Part of the deficit was caused by a jump in insurance costs. The Northwest Montana Educational Service Agency, a co-op of rural schools that SRS is a part of, has decided to switch insurance companies from the Montana Unified School Trust to the Montana Schools Health and Welfare Plan, which is underwritten by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana.

That will help with costs, but in order to switch, the school will have to pay approximately $9,000 to buyout of its current insurance.

"We find it will be a much better situation," Loyda said.

The date for the meeting of the board to approve cuts to the budget is still being set.