BY STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — The school district’s superintendent will recommend next month whether the Board of Education should look to implement a full-day kindergarten program this fall or wait until 2017-18.
The recommendation, by Daniel Fishbein, will come on the heels of a report given Monday night by a special committee of parents, administrators and other professionals tasked with looking into the program’s feasibility in Ridgewood.
Cheryl Best, assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and assessment and the special committee’s head, presented two options: a tax-supported full-day program or an optional tuition-only afternoon service that would complement the district’s existing morning program.
Both would serve to extend the day for Ridgewood’s youngest students, the committee found, and allow more time for studying math, reading and science, as well as a snack/recess break.
But although the district could start a tuition-based program on its own, a tax-supported full-day program would require voter approval because the necessary money is not available in next year’s budget, school board President Sheila Brogan said.
In that case, the board would put a second question on the November ballot asking voters to increase the budget to fund it, she said.
Because the next school year will be well under way by the November election, Best said that any full-day program implemented in the school year starting in the year must be tuition-based. But if the board elected to wait for the 2017-18 school year, she said, it would have the option of posing the second question to the public this fall, and using the tuition-based proposal as a backup plan if it was rejected.
Fishbein said he will make his recommendation at the board’s March 7 meeting. Brogan said she was unsure if the board would make its final decision afterward — any request by trustees for further information could push the vote to March 21.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/village-weighs-starting-full-day-kindergarten-1.1519352
Tuition only for this glorified babysitting service.
I agree. Let them pay tuition. A lot of the outside enrichment do a great job not saddled with RPS core.
For convenience pay for Ridgewood, for quality go private.
BOE segment of property tax is already much too high. If this is important they should find it in their budget. If implemented it could drive even more people, especially seniors, reluctantly out of town. They will sell their houses to young families and good luck with the school system then.
The plundering continues. Its another Feel good RipOff
Call it the afternoon YogaClass Tax. Ridgewood continues to Go Over the Top with other peoples money. Line up the moving vans while boomer clear out. Good luck with escalating school building taxes ahead. Will explode demand and costs side
Let’s just have the schools take delivery of our children from Valley Hospital Maternity ward and end it.