If You Ask Me/By Martha Knight

A fascinating paper by Linda Postlewait turned up in my files when I was searching for something else. Or at least part of it did.

In Chapter IV of “Decision,” titled “Presentation to the Board,” I find this:

“At the School Board meeting on June 14, 1982, four spokespersons presented their views on the new Kindergarten program. Some fifty parents were also there to hear their presentations. The presentations took nearly one hour. The petitions and results of the survey were presented. There were speeches on the philosophy and purpose of Kindergarten, negative consequences to the child and family life, the curriculum and the child’s schedule.

“The Elementary Supervisor, Mr. Ungerer, spoke in favor of the program. The proposed budget of $3.9 million for the 1982-83 school year was passed and the Board set June 28 as the date for their year-end meeting. Board President David Errick assured the parents that the vote on the budget did not mean the Kindergarten could not be considered further. There was no discussion of Kindergarten by Board members at that meeting.

“There were two main objections to the Kindergarten Program at this point: (a) a class size of 27-30 students was not tolerable and (b) the half-day option was unsatisfactory. The Administration had by this time conducted its own survey interpreting its results as showing support for Full-day Kindergarten.

“The next meeting should prove quite interesting! Indeed, it did! But the Kindergarten program would not be on the agenda…”

Way back in 1982, 31 years ago, the school board and administration were tussling with Kindergarten issues. I am not sure how many Kindergarten groups there were. The other issue was whether it would be required that parents send their children to Kindergarten for a full day, or could send them for just the morning session or the afternoon one.

For some years the school district had required that children complete Kindergarten before being admitted to first grade. But the children who had attended half-day Kindergarten were seen as having completed Kindergarten.

The “full” Kindergarten day was not all instruction: there were play periods and rest time (each child had a mat to stretch out on), and there were snack times too. Half-day attenders left before lunch or arrived after lunch.

Parents who availed themselves of the half-day option provided the transportation for the extra, mid-day trip. Back when all Kindergarten had been half-day, the school district had provided the extra busing that required. But once full-day Kindergarten had been provided, the school district dripped mid-day bus service (other than to and from the Vo-Tech).

Quite a number of parents believed that their five-year-olds or almost five-year-olds, while old enough to be away from home part of a day, were too young to be in school all day. And since part of that was not learning time, they argued, why shouldn’t they just spend the learning-time at school, and the resting and playing and snacking time at home?

Half-day Kindergarten was structured along those lines. Full-day Kindergarten included more play-time. But it was all good for development, the educators argued.

There was another powerful argument in favor of full-day Kindergarten: for reimbursement (state aid) purposes, a half-day Kindergarten pupil counted as half a pupil! The half-dayer needed the same materials as the full-dayer, presumably.

But there were savings to the district, too. One Kindergarten teacher, using one classroom, could teach two half-day groups.

Back then there were still a good number of families who had one parent at home at least half of the day, on hand to care for children. School was not needed as a “child care” arrangement for so many children from five up. And fewer parents opted for pre-school programs. There was Head Start, then, but it had limited enrollment, and targeted the lower socio-economic portion of the community. Thus many children “stayed home” until Kindergarten.

When first there was a move by the school district to eliminate the half-day Kindergarten option, there was an outcry from the portion of the community that wanted it to be retained. But what if the board remained adamant?

Enter the pastor of the Free Methodist Church, Larry Freed, and his wife, Sharon, a  certified elementary and music teacher. They had two children by then, one of whom was Kindergarten age. There were other parents of young children in the congregation and among their acquaintances in the wider community

The church was building a new sanctuary, and would use the original worship area for a social hall and for Christian Education, meaning Sunday School. But what about the rest of the week? They decided to provide a half-day Kindergarten, if the school district did not. They came to a school board meeting and said so.

Amazingly, the school board and administration rethought the half-day Kindergarten option, and for at least another year or so it was still offered.

I wish I had the rest of Linda’s paper. But this portion provides an interesting look at a bygone era that is still with us, in many ways.

One thing that is not with us these days is a $3.9 million budget. The one adopted this past June was $14,411,000 and change, if memory serves.

Peace.