South Range super details all-day kindy plan

GREENFORD — Pupils entering kindergarten at South Range Elementary next year likely will be spending more time there than their predecessors.

School officials announced earlier this week the district intends to implement an all-day, every-day kindergarten program at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year.

Dennis Dunham, schools superintendent, explained at the board of education meeting that one of the first-grade teachers will be moved to the kindergarten class, leaving four teachers at the grade one level and increasing kindergarten teachers from two to three.

The elementary school includes kindergarten through grade three. Dunham said the district has an extra first-grade teacher paid for with state funding.

“This is a vital step,” he said. “We’ve talked about and looked at this for a long time. It’s needed.”

The district now offers families an all day, every-other-day kindergarten program. Pupils attend kindergarten all day either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday, and every other Friday.