By Peter Elacqua
Staff Writer
MARLBORO – The earliest date that full-day kindergarten could be implemented in the Marlboro K-8 School District is September 2017.
Board of Education members are discussing a plan that would see renovations made to the Asher Holmes Elementary School, the Frank Defino Central Elementary School, the Frank J. Dugan Elementary School and the Robertsville Elementary School in order to accommodate full-day kindergarten.
At the present time, all Marlboro kindergarten pupils attend a half-day program at the David C. Abbott Early Learning Center. Some parents pay extra tuition to have their child stay in school for an extended kindergarten day.
Voters previously rejected a multi-million dollar plan put forth by the board to build almost two dozen classrooms at the early learning center in order to have that building accommodate the entire full-day kindergarten program.
District administrators said the plan that is now under consideration to create space for full-day kindergarten is to use what is referred to as the banked tax levy cap to fund the necessary renovations at the Asher Holmes, Frank Defino, Frank J. Dugan and Robertsville schools.
The renovations would transform the computer labs into regular classrooms and combined with adjustments at the Marlboro Elementary School’s computer lab, which is the size of a standard classroom, would make 10 classrooms available for kindergarten, according to the board. Those 10 classrooms throughout the district would be combined with nine available classrooms at the early learning center so that full-day kindergarten could be offered to all pupils.
The banked cap is tax money the school district was permitted to raise in a given budget year, but chose not to. The uncollected taxes (the banked cap) can accrue for three years, at which time they may be raised from property owners, according to Superintendent of Schools Eric Hibbs.
Hibbs said there is $1.9 million available in the banked cap for the board to use and the cost of the work needed to prepare the classrooms is about $1.9 million. If the board elects to put this plan into place, taxpayers will see a total 4.79 percent increase in school taxes for 2016-17, according to the superintendent.
“We have already said we are for (full-day kindergarten),” board President Debbie Mattos said. “We have already said we want to see full-day kindergarten here and the bottom line is that if we have full-day kindergarten, it has to come from the use of the banked cap.”
“Being a school district, we do not have the luxury of going out and borrowing money like other entities can,” board member Craig Marshall said. “If you are a business and you want to make an addition to your building, you can go to the bank and finance it over however many years they will give you. We do not have the luxury to do that.”
In an informal poll among board members, all agreed they are in favor of the classroom conversion plan that is under consideration despite having reservations about raising taxes.