Full-day kindergarten program
recommended in Spencerport

Parents of kindergarten age children in the Spencerport School district may be looking at a full day program. The committee charged with studying the options for full-day kindergarten recommended the district adopt a full day kindergarten program at the January 25 board meeting.

The committee, comprised of parents, teachers and administrators and chaired by Jim Alexander, came to a consensus on the full day program.

"We studied all of the research, hosted community forums, did surveys and visited other districts to see how their programs were structured," Alexander said. "We compared all of that, and community input, to see how it aligned with the district's strategic plan and made the recommendation to the superintendent to adopt the full day kindergarten."

Alexander said that Superintendent Phillip Langton was going to look over the results from the committee before making a formal recommendation to the board. It is anticipated that a recommendation would be made to the board by February.

"We took all of the parents' concerns into consideration when making our recommendation but we found the benefits far outweighed any detriment to the children," Alexander said.

Issues that will affect the decision include budget implications, state aid, staffing, bus runs and whether to offer parents the option of a half-day session.