School board perplexed by rejection of kindergarten compromise
Full day kindergarten won’t be universal until September 2011
Whistler Pique
2010-01-27
By Andrew Mitchell

The Sea to Sky School District board has sent a letter to the Ministry of Education asking why their proposal to bring in full-day kindergarten in January 2011 was rejected.

The district may be left with a choice of providing full-day kindergarten to just 60 per cent of students in September 2010 or holding off until the program is fully funded the following year.

School Board superintendent Dr. Rick Erickson is confused why their proposal was rejected, given that it cost the same as the province's staged plan and that it didn't put the board into a position of providing full-day kindergarten to one group of five year olds and half-day for another….

As a result of the costs as well as issues like teacher recruitment, the availability of classes and issues with other programs like after school programs and the province's Early Start initiative, school boards across the province are being provided with enough funding to cover roughly half of the Kindergarten-age students in the province with full-day classes….

The Sea to Sky School District rejected both those ideas, but decided it was better to take the money and offer the programming to some of the students rather than none.

As it happens the parent of a kindergarten student came up with the answer, sharing it with a school trustee in the checkout line of a Whistler supermarket - keep all kindergarten-age kids in half-day kindergarten from September 2010 until January 2011, then promote all kids to full-day kindergarten. It costs the same and the school district has ample classroom space to make it a reality.

"We're not canceling the opportunity for full-day kindergarten, and we can accommodate the kids," said Erickson, who said over 90 per cent of parents polled by the district supported the move to full-day kindergarten. "It doesn't cost more money than the province would otherwise spend for the 190-plus students they have funding for. So what I would call this is a win-win."

However, the idea was rejected by the province on the grounds that it didn't meet the criteria given to school districts….