Shaker drops full-day kindergarten in favor of half-day pre-K

BELMONT — The Shaker Regional School District is dropping plans to implement all-day kindergarten anytime soon, and is reverting to its original proposal to add half-day pre-school programs at the elementary schools in Belmont and Canterbury and maintain half-day kindergarten at both schools.

School Superintendent Maria Dreyer explained that with 90 children projected to enroll in full-day kindergarten at least four and perhaps five classrooms would be required and the additional space was simply not available. Earlier the board proposed offering one class of full-day kindergarten at each school with the pupils chosen by lottery, but rejected the plan after it met with stiff opposition from parents.

Despite the decision Heidi Hutchinson, who chairs the board repeated its commitment to introduce full-day kindergarten "within a few years," which prompted one disappointed mother to reply "it seems like it's been in a few years for a few years."

With the decision at a supplementary budget hearing this week to forgo full-day kindergarten, the operating budget was reduced by $101,000, from $19,507,028 to $19,458,868, to which was added $52,840 to fund a 3 percent salary increase for support staff. The total operating budget of $19,458,868 represents an increase of $45,506, but $1,635,000 in transfers from other funds the total budget amounts to $$21,093,868, a decrease of 0.02-percent.

The amount to be raised by property taxes is $12,472,409, with Belmont bearing $8,823,885, an increase of $439,190, and Canterbury bearing $3,648,524, a decrease of $54,496.