HARVARD -- Responding to a higher-than-expected demand for full-day kindergarten, the Harvard School Committee voted unanimously March 1 to offer three full-day classes.

Forty-four students sought entry to the full-day program. Thirty-six acceptance letters were sent and eight students were turned away.

The original class structuring called for two full-day classes and two half-day class options. Following the vote, invitations were to be re-extended, welcoming those who didn't garner a spot via lottery.

Left on the table is a decision about how to handle half-day kindergarten classes. Hildreth Elementary School Principal Mary Beth Banios said the law requires a no-tuition, half-day kindergarten program. Opting to attend for the second half of the day is on a roughly $4,000 tuition basis per year. Twelve families have opted for the half-day program to date for next year. How to provide the mandated half-day session is unsettled.

School Committee member Piali De was shocked to see early projections for the total kindergarten population at 56, though other students may still move into or "choice" into the school district before the fall. When her children attended nearly two decades ago, she recalled a kindergarten class size of 100 students -- the target maximum size for classes entering the Bromfield Middle/High School later in their scholastic years.

Instead of separate half-day sessions, De urged that the half-day students be blended

Advertisement
into the three-day classes. She also said that she is concerned with a proposal to fill 12 more seats with an open advertisement for out of district "choice" students. Six applications have been received to date from parents seeking to choice-in. De pondered aloud what would happen then if "all of a sudden the economy recovers and people start flocking back to Harvard. It's the fear of the unknown."

School Superintendent Thomas Jefferson urged separate and distinct half-day classes, saying there'd be heartache otherwise come dismissal time for half-day students. "The bus comes at 11:45 and those students are in tears because they're leaving their classmates," said Jefferson. "Ones that are staying are in tears because their peers are leaving at 11:45."

Jefferson highlighted the benefits of bringing a choice child into the district sooner rather than later. "It's a very good time to bring a child into the system because they get our curriculum from grade one." And "even if there's a real estate boom, it's hard to believe we're going to pick up 35 more students in a single grade" over this summer.

As for the genesis of the uptick in interest in the kindergarten program, Banios said it may be partly because of increasing satisfaction with the program.

De theorized that there might be increasing need for parents to return to work. "The economy has something to do with it," she said.

The handling of a requested half-day session and adding 12 choice students into the mix was tabled for the time being.

"We can ruminate about the classmates," said committee member Virginia Justicz. "I've talked to families that were anxious" about the coming fall.

A decision as to whether the district will advertise choice slots will wait until the committee's March 15 meeting.

In the meantime, meetings with parents looking to send their kindergarten-aged children to HES got underway last week.