Waukesha Schools May End Junior Kindergarden

Amy Hetzner:

Gov. Jim Doyle on Friday let stand a provision in the state budget-repair bill that would force school systems by 2013 to expand their limited 4-year-old kindergarten programs to all eligible students or - as could be the case in Waukesha - end the programs.

The budget amendment is seen as a reprieve from state school Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster's stricter interpretation this year.

Burmaster had told school systems in January that junior-kindergarten programs that were not offered to all 4-year-olds in a district would not be funded in 2008-'09.

Spokesman Patrick Gasper said the Department of Public Instruction knew of five districts other than Waukesha with programs that the change would affect, including large systems such as Kenosha Unified and Beloit.

The other districts are Monona Grove, Beaver Dam and Two Rivers.

Kenosha has been thinking of expanding its 4-K program, which was started about seven years ago in a fourth of its elementary schools through a special state-financed program, said Kathleen Barca, the district's executive director of school leadership.

But Waukesha Superintendent David Schmidt said that even with the five-year phase-in, the new requirement made it unlikely that his district would be able to maintain a decades-old kindergarten-readiness offering for students identified as needing extra help.

The district educates about 100 students a year in its 4-K program.

Waukesha's Executive Director of Business Services, Erik Kass, will assume a similar position in Madison this summer.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 17, 2008 10:55 AM
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