Full-Day Kindergarten Remains Goal For Fair Lawn Schools

Fair Lawn's new extended kindergarten for students needing some extra help this fall is a "creative" first step toward a future full-day program for all the district's first-year students, Superintendent Bruce Watson said last week.

A full-day kindergarten program is the "ultimate goal" of several members of the Fair Lawn Board of Education, member Eugene Banta said.

Voters previously shot down a referendum to pay for full-day kindergarten.

"You can't just walk out and say, 'In September, we're going to have a full-day kindergarten,'" Watson said.

Board member Jeff Klein initiated the discussion at last week's school board meeting, but other officials said they are already working toward the eventual goal of full-day kindergarten for years.

"The fact that we don't bring it up at every meeting is not an indication that we don't consider it an important goal," member Mary Wallace said.

The district will need to approach the issue part-by-part because of the costs of the various components, such as possible additions of new classroom space and staff that the full-day program may require, according to Watson.

"Everything is a balance," he said. "It's a process."

The board is scheduled to discuss the space issue and the town's changing demographics, as well as requirements for full-day kindergarten, at a meeting August 12.

Board members have discussed several ways they could find a compromise between their desire to increase instruction time and the costs of a new program for all students, such as starting an extended kindergarten that splits the day into two four-hour sessions.

The new BSI kindergarten program will add two hours and fifteen minutes of instruction time for students having trouble with math and literacy starting this October. 

Watson previously said he hoped that addressing students' learning problems early would be easier than trying to fix it later.

“The whole idea of getting kids help is the earlier you get it, the quicker it sets in and the better chance they have of a better education as they move up,” he previously said.