Right choice on full-day Kindergarten
January 28, 2010
Gulf Islands Driftwood
Editorial

…. The school district’s options were to implement a full-day kindergarten program on Salt Spring Island only; on the Outer Islands only; to slash other programs and use the savings to offer full-day Kindergarten everywhere; to pick a few schools throughout the islands for the program; or to say “no thanks” and refuse to participate until the fall of 2011, when the government promises 100 per cent funding for full-day kindergarten.

A Gulf Islands School District employee came up with another idea which many trustees seemed to favour when it was discussed at their last public school board meeting. That would have let next year’s crop of “kindies” at all Gulf Islands schools start the year in a half-day program and then move into full days for the second part of the year.

Not only would it have been a nice transition for the students, but it meant the province’s 50 per cent funding could have been used for 50 per cent of the year. Kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?

Too much sense, apparently, because the Ministry of Education turned it down….

How much extra staffing assistance might be required, especially in mixed-grade classrooms, is one item that will no doubt come up, making us wonder if the province really knows what a “fully funded” kindergarten classroom looks like.