Windham to use portable classrooms to make room for kindergarteners

Salem Editor — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:42:00 GMT

The Windham School Board has decided on a temporary facilities plan to get kindergarten up and running by the state’s deadline of September 2009.

The board voted unanimously at its meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 16, to place portable classrooms at one or more of the school district’s existing schools, but a definite spot has not yet been selected.

The state would pay for the portables and the materials needed to run them, as well as provide the school district with $1,200 per student for the year in funding.

“The only thing we’d have to pay for would be the cost of the teachers, and the state is providing some incentives there,” said Frank Bass, superintendent for the Pelham and Windham school districts, both of which are on the list of 11 towns who need to begin a public kindergarten program by the start of school in September 2009.

The per-student funding would likely cover the cost of paying teachers’ salaries, leaving little to nothing left for taxpayers’ bills, Bass said.

The $1,200 represents half of the average daily membership, which the state gives to all communities to educate each public school student. Because the state mandates only half-day kindergarten, they will reimburse half.

The New Hampshire Board of Education included at least half-day public kindergarten in its definition of an adequate education during their session in spring 2007, requiring the districts in the state without such programs to get one in place. The other school districts who were without public kindergarten programs at the time the mandate went into effect were Salem, Chester, Litchfield, Derry, Milford, Lyndeborough, Hudson, Auburn and Mascenic Regional.

When it first was set, the mandate was largely unfunded, sparking controversy among those districts without kindergarten. They demanded state funding solutions, and more or less got them.

A long-term solution to kindergarten facilities will include an in-depth study on the Windham School District’s current facilities, looking at enrollment projections, possible upgrades to current buildings, and possibly building new ones.

“We have yet to determine what route we want to take,” said Bass, adding a committee devoted to the facilities study was formed in August.

Communities have been calculating how many students they would need to accommodate in kindergarten programs by taking 80 percent of the amount of children who will be kindergarten age by the time school starts. Using that estimate, Windham would need to make room for about 215 to 225 students.

So far, the Pelham School Board has yet to decide what avenue they will take to begin kindergarten in their district.

“We’re still exploring several options,” Bass said. “I think that will be a running conversation for each and every meeting of the Pelham School Board.”

The state has said they would provide 75 percent in aid for construction costs to build new facilities for the communities facing public kindergarten establishment. This could happen at the same time the communities are receiving the total funding for portables in the short term. All of the 11 school districts without kindergarten have until Dec. 1 to submit their long-term plans for kindergarten to the state.

Pelham and Windham for kindergarten, but against state mandate

Salem Editor — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:37:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

An amendment to a bill going through the state Legislature that mandates public kindergarten for districts without it poses several options for communities looking to establish a program by the September 2009 deadline.

Rep. Lynne Ober, one of the drafters of the amendment to the state’s original kindergarten bill, said the “menu” of options includes 100 percent building aid, pushing the deadline back and integrating private kindergartens into the public system during a transitional period.

“We’re getting some positive support,” said Ober, who represents Pelham, Hudson and Litchfield in the State House. “We know we still have some wrinkles.”

The proposal was co-authored with Peter Leishman, who represents Amherst and Milford. Some of the 12 communities without kindergarten may consider suing, Ober said, on the premise that the kindergarten bill as it currently stands is an unfunded mandate.

“If they sued, that would be an injunction that would prevent kindergarten for all the communities,” said Ober. “My whole goal is do not put money in the attorney’s pockets. We want to get public kindergarten started now, and we want to put enough options on the table so that every school district can choose the options that’s right for them.”

The “menu” item that suggests paying state aid to certain private kindergartens, which would be certified according to state standards, would allow districts to contract private establishments and universalize the curriculum while setting up their own public kindergarten system.

“There are 12 districts, and some of them don’t have land to build on. That’s what we’re looking at as a way to transition that lets all 12 districts start in a way that is legal,” Ober said, adding the penalties for failing to set up kindergarten could include losing state aid.

School Board members for two of those districts, Pelham and Windham, said their respective boards are not against the idea of public kindergarten but disagree with the state mandating it without complete funding.

Windham School Board Chairman Barbara Coish said the proposed options seem beneficial to towns looking at setting up kindergarten, but added Windham is waiting the legislation out.

“We know it’s down the road, but when exactly we implement public kindergarten is going to depend on how the legislation comes out,” Coish said.

The board unanimously decided not to put any items on the 2008 warrant pertaining to kindergarten, Coish said, but generally supports the idea of having public kindergarten that would put incoming first-graders on a level playing field.

She added locating or building proper facilities for kindergarten would be the hardest part of the process. The Windham School Board has brainstormed several ideas for housing kindergarten, including installing portable classrooms and renovating the Golden Brook School, but has not settled on anything.

“We have not made any decision, we are just waiting to see what the final legislation looks like,” Coish said.

Eleanor Burton said the Pelham School Board is also waiting on planning for kindergarten until the finished bill comes out of legislation.

“It’s so uncertain because it’s still going through the house, and there are going to be some revisions,” Burton said.

Burton, a Pelham School Board member for seven years, said the board has considered taking part in a law suit against the state on the premise that the kindergarten legislation as it stands constitutes an unfunded mandate.

“I hate to think the state is mandating it because they need to realize the financial constraints of individual communities and what their priorities are,” Burton said. “Mandating without funding … I don’t see financially how that fits into our picture.”

Windham News : kindergarten

Windham to use portable classrooms to make room for kindergarteners

Pelham and Windham for kindergarten, but against state mandate