Board urges kindergarten expansion

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Tuesday, March 23, 2004 | 10:50 a.m.

Expanding the state-funded kindergarten day from 120 minutes to 200 minutes of instructional time will be a top priority for the Nevada Board of Education in the 2005 legislative session, lawmakers were told Monday.

"This is essential to lifelong success in the public education system," Gary Waters, president of the state Education Board, told members of the Legislative Committee on Education. "It's a great investment in our youth."

Waters, who appeared before the committee at the Community College of Southern Nevada's Pahrump campus, said studies have shown the more classroom instruction students receive in early childhood and kindergarten programs the less that needs to be spent on remedial services later.

Waters said the state Education Board, at its meeting Saturday, also voted to propose lowering the mandatory school attendance age for a child from 7 years to 6 years in order to "send a message to parents that schooling must start as soon as possible."

The minimum age for kindergarten -- 5 by Sept. 30 of the school year of attendance -- would not not change. Children would also still need to be 6 years of age by Sept. 30 to attend first grade.

The proposal to add 80 minutes of instructional time is a compromise between the full-day kindergarten program the board -- along with the state's 17 school superintendents -- sought in the 2003 session.

The cost of funding a full-day kindergarten program statewide was estimated at $80 million during the last legislative session and has likely risen over $100 million for 2005, Waters said.

Extending the workday by 160 minutes for the 579 kindergarten teachers currently working in Nevada would have cost $12 million, Waters said.

Senate Majority Leader William Raggio, R-Reno, the committee's vice chair, said he expected the state would have a budget shortfall in 2005 with little -- if any -- money left for expanding existing programs or funding new ones.

"Think of the fights we had trying to raise $800 million over a two-year period," Raggio said. "It's imperative that you, the local districts, the (education) department, all prioritize."

Outside the meeting Raggio said he agreed that an expanded kindergarten program would be beneficial to the state's students but questioned whether the dollars could be found.

"No one -- absolutely no one -- is going to suggest we raise taxes in the next session," Raggio said. "(Expanding kindergarten) is like so many other things -- it's a worthy goal, but in the long run the cost is prohibitive."

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, the committee's chairman, asked Waters to return to the committee at a later date with more specific data, including any studies of student achievement that have been done locally.

Mary Ella Holloway, president of the Clark County Education Association, said the state Education Board's plan may conflict with the negotiated contract for the district's teachers.

In Clark County elementary school teachers work a 7-hour, 11-minute day with about 310 minutes of classroom instruction. Most kindergarten teachers have a morning and afternoon session. If each kindergarten session were expanded to 200 minutes, teachers would be working more than what their contracts call for, Holloway said.

Teachers are also guaranteed weekly preparation time and 30 minutes for lunch.

"Where are they going to pull out those 25 minutes? Are teachers going to be paid overtime?" Holloway said. "These are questions we'd need answers to before we could say yes or no to supporting this."

The Clark County School District's full-day kindergarten program, in place at a handful of campuses with the highest proportions of students from low-income families. An increase in federal funds will allow the district to expand half-day kindergarten programs to full-day sessions at 35 at-risk schools for the 2004-05 academic year.

District officials said Monday they are also moving ahead with a pilot program to charge parents $300 a month tuition for their children to attend full-day kindergarten classes beginning in August. Parents who were surveyed at select schools came out in favor of the proposal, said Carla Steinforth, superintendent of the district's northwest region.

"The initial response from parents has been very positive," Steinforth said. "There are quite a few parents who have their children in a day care situation when they're not at kindergarten and would prefer the structure and curriculum of the school setting."

Linda Cozine, a kindergarten teacher at Wynn Elementary School, said she was in favor of full-day programs provided it means more time to teach the lessons that are already expected.

"I don't want to see (the district) start cramming more things into the curriculum because we suddenly have more time," said Cozine, who has taught in Clark County for 28 years. "That would just eat away the benefit of the longer day."

Cozine said her colleagues teaching first grade say they know immediately which children have been in full-day kindergarten programs.

"The full-day children are more mature and settled in because they've already had the experience of the longer schedule," Cozine said. "The others are just not ready to be there yet."