District sticking with full-day kindergarten despite looming cuts

While many school districts across the state are looking to cut back programs due to looming budget cuts for education, the Maricopa Unified School District says it’s ensuring one program remains alive.

The district announced that it will be offering full-day kindergarten next school year at no cost to parents.

“We have made a commitment to full-day kindergarten to our community and are going to honor that commitment,” said district Superintendent John Flores.

Maricopa Unified’s decision comes at a time when other schools serving the area are taking a wait-and-see approach.

Representatives from both the Kyrene School District and Legacy Traditional said that their governing bodies are waiting to see what kind of budget cuts are made before a decision is made on whether to cut kindergarten to a half day, or offer a full day subsidized through a tuition program.

“We are accepting applications for kindergarten now, but we are asking parents to answer a survey asking what changes they would like to see if funding to kindergarten is cut by the state,” said Kyrene spokeswoman Nancy Dudenhoefer.

Kyrene has been a popular option for parents in Maricopa, with currently 790 students from the area attending the district and a good majority of those being bused from Maricopa to Kyrene’s schools in Ahwatukee and Chandler.

Of those 790, 73 kids from Maricopa currently are enrolled in full-day kindergarten and ride the buses with other children to and from the distant district.

However, if Kyrene cuts back to a half-day kindergarten, it may bring up questions about the logistics of providing transportation to kindergartners.

“It isn’t a scenario (transporting kindergartners separately) we have looked at yet,” Dudenhoefer said.

One reason Flores said that Maricopa Unified is able to make this type of commitment to the parents of the area is because he believes cuts to the district will not be as bad as other districts.

“Those that are hit hardest by these budget cuts will be the districts with declining enrollment numbers,” Flores said. “We are still growing by 17 to 22 students a month.”

Kyrene has seen kindergarten enrollment decrease this year compared to the same time last year, and overall the district’s enrollment numbers have been in a steady decline, Dudenhoefer said.

The drop in enrollment and cuts in state funding have led Kyrene to lay off all first-year teachers and the district is considering an across-the-board pay decrease for employees.

“We think many parents are taking a wait-and-see approach to kindergarten enrollment,” Dudenhoefer said.

Photo by Jake Johnson