New Hampshire

Windham committee makes kindergarten recommendations

Committee favors modular classrooms on rented land

By Terry Date
tdate@eagletribune.com
Published: November 12, 2008

WINDHAM, N.H. — Kindergarten students may start their public school careers in modular classrooms on rented land near Golden Brook School

That's if the School Board accepts the recommendation of the committee charged with formulating a plan for the school district's first kindergarten students next fall.

That plan would suffice in the short term, according to committee members, and the state would reimburse the district for the modular building and furniture costs.

Taxpayers would pay for, in part, seven teachers, seven classroom aides, an administrator and bus service. The state would reimburse the district $1,200 for every kindergarten student.

The state requires all school districts without public kindergarten to have at least a short-term solution in place by the start of the 2009-10 school year. The School Board has approved kindergarten for August.

The district has yet to decide on a long-term location for the kindergarten program.

Meanwhile, the modular building would house at least seven portable classrooms to accommodate 258 students, the estimated number of children eligible for kindergarten next year.

Kindergarten's location, schedule and other considerations will ultimately be decided by the board as soon as next month.

The Kindergarten Committee recommends students attend half-day sessions, five days a week.

The morning session would last from 8:45 to 11:15 a.m. The afternoon session would last from 12:30 to 3 p.m.

This recommendation met opposition from one parent and support from another when announced Monday.

Parent Cindy Diener said full-day sessions — two of them plus one half-day a week — would better prepare students for first grade, and be more acceptable to other parents of kindergarten students.

"(It) is going to sell a lot better than half-days," Diener said.

Parent Gordon Campbell said five-hour days would be too long for some kindergarten children.

"We only have one chance to start them off right," he said.

Campbell said he wished parents were given more information about the plan earlier.

Assistant Superintendent Roxanne Wilson, who is on the Kindergarten Committee, said she would return to the School Board next month with an estimate of the cost for full-day kindergarten.

Wilson said the committee is recommending no outdoor recess under the half-day plan because time spent getting children into and out of their boots and coats would take too much time away from instruction during a 2 1/2-hour session.

The Kindergarten Committee includes school administrators, teachers and parents.

Golden Brook Elementary School is on Lowell Road near Windham Middle School.

The district is negotiating with the landowner to lease property so it locate the modular building next to Golden Brook School.