This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Board of Ed Casts Split Vote on Full-Day K

The Board of Education voted Wednesday in favor of a full-day kindergarten schedule starting next year.

In what some members called the most difficult decision of their tenure, the Brookfield Board of Education (BOE) voted 4-3 to establish a full-day kindergarten program that has generated considerable discussion over the last two months from parents and school administrators.

The proposal, which was first discussed last spring, has recently drawn more intense attention at BOE meetings and focus groups, culminating in extensive comment by the seven BOE members at their regular meeting Wednesday, with one of them, Samir Qureshi, voting through a speaker phone while he was on a business trip.

Superintendent Anthony Bivona, who was among the administrators seeking to get the program approved, said it would be a “structural change” that would address the more ambitious state standards for kindergarten and would allow Brookfield to compete with other high-performing districts that have adopted full-day kindergarten in recent years.

Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

However, Roger Ciriello, a parent who has volunteered his time in the kindergarten classes at Center Elementary School (CES), said during public comment this week that the full-day model would result in teachers having less opportunity to work with small class sizes.

CES Principal Carrie Kilian has said in the current system all kindergarten students attend CES for half a day on Monday and then half of the students assigned to each of the nine classroom teachers goes for a full day on Tuesday and Thursday and half a day on Wednesday and Friday and the other students have a full day on Wednesday and Friday and half days on Tuesday and Thursday.

Find out what's happening in Brookfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Under the plan that Assistant Superintendent Genie Slone and Kilian initially presented at the September 21 BOE meeting, all students would have half a day of instruction on Monday and then a full day from Tuesday through Friday, which would run from 8:40 a.m. to 3:25 p.m.

Proponents have said the added time is needed to allow students to both meet the rigorous state standards and also have ample time for play.

Parent Ellen Suarino, who teaches in Stamford, said the change is needed since kindergarten has become more like first grade.

Slone has said recent data indicates that Brookfield students do better on the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT), which is administered each March in third through eighth grade, in the middle school grades and that the district also has posted impressive results recently on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT), which is given annually to 10th grade students.

She has said that more attention needs to be focused on the primary grades as teachers prepare students to take their first CMT in the third grade.

However, opponents have said there will no longer be the small classes that exist for parts of the day under the current extended day proposal and the increased hours per week might put a physical strain on five-year-olds.

Kilian, who was praised by BOE members for her research, said she received positive feedback from school administrators in New Canaan, Darien and Westport, which all have adopted full-day kindergarten in the recent years.

BOE Chairman Ray DiStephan said he believes the district might have to hire an additional kindergarten teacher under the new plan, which will take effect at the beginning of the next academic year.

“We’re at the top of our class guidelines of 17 to 21 students in kindergarten with an average of 21,” he said in an interview.

DiStephan said he was “very encouraged” that Kilian said non-certified teachers and volunteers could be better utilized under the full-day kindergarten plan to help address the lack of the small teacher-student ratio that exists at various times of the week under extended-day kindergarten.

However, he voted against the plan, saying he needed more details on how all of the staff members and volunteers would contribute to better instruction under full-day kindergarten.

“It’s a very open-minded ‘no,’ ” DiStephan said, entertaining comment from BOE members at one point about whether they wanted to table action to a later date so they could get additional information.

Kilian emphasized that the kindergarten teachers would receive professional development presentations on full-day kindergarten to prepare them for the changes.

He said during the meeting that he wanted to support the plan, but that he wasn’t yet confident enough that it would be the best choice.

“I just don’t think our educational success would be based on this extra time,” said BOE member Harry Shaker, who, along with BOE Vice Chairman Rob Gianazza, cast the other dissenting votes.

Bivona said students benefit from full-day kindergarten because, among other things, they establish regular “routines.”

BOE members Victor Katz, Jane Miller, Mike Fenton and Qureshi supported the program.

Qureshi and Katz both said they were concerned about class size, but that the program would help the district teach the revised state standards.

Fenton said he was partly swayed by the commitment that the school administrators had made over the recent weeks to generate support for the program.

DiStephan said despite the close vote, all of the BOE members will be supportive of the administrators’ efforts over the coming months to implement full-day kindergarten by the 2012-13 school year.

He said both the members that supported and opposed the plan struggled to reach their position.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?