Free all-day kindergarten returns; program’s future funding still uncertain

After a one-year hiatus, free all-day kindergarten has returned in the Maricopa Unified School District.

“We are very excited to be offering all-day kindergarten once again at all six elementary schools,” said Superintendent Steve Chestnut.

Last year parents of kindergarten students in the district were charged $145 monthly to have their children attend kindergarten for a full-day. Half-day instruction was free.

The state decided to stop paying for all-day kindergarten for students five years ago as part of massive budget cuts in response to the recession.

Chestnut said the district used override and reserve funds to keep all-day kindergarten free for parents until the 2013-14 school year when it had to cut an additional $1 million from the budget and could no longer afford to offer it.

“Moving our district letter grade from a C to a B in our 2012-13 evaluation from the Arizona Department of Education has allowed us to access the ‘Move On When Reading’ funds to help restore free all-day kindergarten for this school year.” Chestnut said.

The change has unsurprisingly resulted in a spike in enrollment in kindergarten students in the district.

“We have more students enrolled in kindergarten classes than we were even expecting,” Chestnut said. “(After the first week of school) we had 462 students enrolled in kindergarten classes and we were planning on about 440 students.”

Maricopa Elementary principal Jennifer Robinson said, “With the implementation of Common Core standards the return of all-day kindergarten gives kids the opportunity to meet these standards and apply and master these skills. Having some kids in half-day kindergarten gave us a limited opportunity to achieve that; we can dig deeper now.”

“I prefer all-day kindergarten so much more,” said Peggy Wojtal, kindergarten teacher at Maricopa

Elementary. “We had to rush everything last year with the half-day format. Now we can take our time and get a lot more involved with the kids.”

Wojtal had all the kids signed up for half-day kindergarten at Maricopa Elementary last year while the other kindergarten teacher had the full-day students.

This change isn’t guaranteed long-term, though.

“It’s hard to say in August if we will be able to afford it next school year,” Chestnut said. “If we can afford it, we will offer it. It is a very high priority focus for us.”

A budget override, which is on the Nov. 4 ballot, would help alleviate the district’s financial challenges.

The MUSD governing board discussed the return of the state funding all-day kindergarten as a 2015 legislative priority during its Aug. 13 meeting.

President Torri Anderson said the item is on the short-term — three to five years — list of Arizona School Board Association priorities, but Chestnut and governing board member Patti Coutré, advocated for its inclusion in the session-specific items for 2015.***ADVERTISEMENT***

“I advocate for the restoration of all-day kindergarten being paid for by the state in the next legislative session,” Chestnut said. “Studies show that students with more early childhood education do better in school. I think it is a good investment to fund all-day kindergarten.”

In order for that to happen, a legislator or ASBA lobbyist would have to draft a bill for the Legislature’s consideration, and Anderson thinks that is unlikely after an election year.

“All-day kindergarten is very hot topic,” Anderson said. “We would love to get something drawn up to make this a session specific-item for the upcoming legislative session, but the issue is coming up with the money; this is something that is going to cost the state millions of dollars.”