The Wood River Valley's upcoming class of kindergartners will likely be better prepared for the first grade following school board approval last week of all-day kindergarten in the Blaine County School District.
The vote was 5-0 following a presentation at the June 9 school board meeting by District Curriculum Director Matt Murray. The new program will be implemented at the start of the coming school year.
Originally conceived as a pilot program, administrators and the board chose instead to implement the program district-wide and for nearly all of the upcoming kindergarten class of some 250 students. The lone exception is Carey School, where staffing restrictions precluded implementation this year.
All-day kindergarten will not be mandatory. Parents will retain the option of sending their children for a half day. Murray said the program will accommodate parents who have other "enrichment programs" planned for their children.
"If you are a parent who does not want all-day kindergarten, you can take your student out at the lunch break," Murray said.
Also, a half-day kindergarten class will be held at Hemingway Elementary School in Ketchum to accommodate students who register late.
By shifting staff responsibilities, primarily in the district's dual-immersion language program, Murray said the district was able to accommodate all-day kindergarten with only the addition of one more teacher.
Murray said all-day kindergarten will allow the district to implement new teaching programs, will allow instruction in science and social studies and will allow earlier identification of individual learning deficiencies.
"We'll see the kids better prepared for the first grade because they'll already be able to read and will know their numbers," Murray said.
Prior to adoption of the plan, school staff contacted nearly all of the parents of new kindergarten students.
"All but about six parents expressed interest and support of it," Murray said.
The school district also advertised on its Web site that the program was an agenda item for the June 9 meeting and wrote that public comment would be welcome.
No one commented at the meeting, but the board received a letter from the owners of a daycare center who wrote that all-day kindergarten would hurt their business.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
