MARLBORO — Full-day kindergarten will not be offered in the Marlboro K-8 School District in the 2014-15 school year, but administrators hope to launch the program in the 2015-16 school year.
“In order for me to make this happen [in 2014-15], what I would have to do is look you in the eye and say, ‘I just want to do it, but I don’t have a good plan,’ ” Superintendent of Schools Eric Hibbs said at the Jan. 28 meeting of the Board of Education. “And, really, it’s not the best way to operate.”
Time is not on the side of district administrators, who generally agree that offering children a full-day kindergarten is a top priority, Hibbs said.
The board decided to form a committee to pursue the idea in November 2013.
The David C. Abbott Early Learning Center, which all of Marlboro’s kindergarten pupils currently attend, does not have a cafeteria, a library or a gymnasium to support a full-day kindergarten, Hibbs said.
On top of that, Marlboro K-8 administrators do not yet know how much space will be needed, he said.
District officials will also be charged with mapping transportation routes and writing a new curriculum to support fullday kindergarten, the superintendent said.
Board member BonnieSue Rosenwald said the curriculum-building process could take three to five months before undergoing an extensive review.
“I want it tomorrow, but I’m a realist and I know we can’t do it tomorrow,” she said.
As with many initiatives that school administrators throughout the state take on, the funding needed will pose another challenge, Hibbs said.
Right now, Marlboro’s optional, tuitionbased kindergarten complement program, which offers kindergarten pupils extra time in school each day, pulls in about $500,000 per year for the district’s coffers, he said.
When the time to implement the full-day kindergarten arrives, district officials will be forced to make up for that “significant cut” while covering new costs, Hibbs said.
The state provides little in the way of financial aid for districts that opt to establish full-day kindergarten, he added.
The full-day kindergarten committee was expected to meet last week to begin its analysis of the proposal, he said.
Board members and Hibbs said they want to bring full-day kindergarten to Marlboro, especially due to the rigor of the new Common Core State Standards. Those educational guidelines are designed for full-day kindergarten courses, according to officials.
“The board has every intention of doing their very best, and you have my word, to have it in place by the following September (2015),” board President Michael Lilonsky said during the panel’s Feb. 4 meeting.
During both meetings, several members of the public expressed disappointment that Marlboro’s full-day kindergarten would not begin in September.
Some people pointed to the Manalapan- Englishtown Regional School District’s late 2013 decision to introduce full-day kindergarten in the 2014-15 school year as evidence that Marlboro administrators could do the same.
“I don’t know if it is going to be the most successful program on the face of this Earth, but [Manalapan-Englishtown] at least made the effort,” Gloria Barenberg said. “… Most parents are just very flabbergasted that Marlboro cannot do the same thing.”
Business Administrator Cindy Barr- Rague previously said Manalapan-Englishtown administrators plan to use money that was not applied in previous budgets, but she noted that plan could have an impact on school taxes in that district.
“You have to look at the whole,” she said. “You just can’t look at this piece of it, and that’s what they did.”
While Marlboro might end up doing the same thing, Lilonsky said, the board plans to explore all details of the initiative and bring it about in a structured manner.
Some residents said curriculum writing and the financial tasks should not take long to accomplish.
District officials disagreed and said they intend to fully analyze the issue and establish the best full-day kindergarten program possible.
Even as some parents applauded that line of thought, they said they were upset that full-day kindergarten will not come to Marlboro sooner.
“I think it needs to be put together properly in order for it to be successful, however, as a parent of an incoming kindergartner, you can understand my insane disappointment,” Stacey Koopman said.
District administrators said they plan to continue to offer the tuition-based kindergarten complement program during the 2014-15 school year.