Oak Park’s D97 taking stock of full-day kindergarten

Five years ago, District 97 launched its full-day kindergarten program district-wide, eliminating the former half-day program.

Parent Bryn Poulton has experienced both programs. Her 11-year-old son attended the half-day program at Hatch School. He’s now a sixth-grader at Brooks. Poulton’s two younger daughters, a first- and fourth-grader at Hatch, have gone through the full-day program. 

The change was not only new for her children but for Poulton as well.

“The only misgiving I had was that I liked having extra time with my children before sending them to school (before full-day K). I guess that was my biggest misgiving. But it’s worked out fine, and I’ve been able take on more hours and then go pick them up when they’re finished with school, so in that way it’s been helpful. But it was an adjustment for me going to a full-day mindset.”

Full-day kindergarten launched in the fall of 2009 after being piloted at Longfellow, Irving and Beye schools the previous year. Whittier School was the only school in D97 at that time with a full-day, mixed-level kindergarten program. 

But a full-day program throughout the district had been a long-sought goal and ultimately implemented as part of the district’s strategic plan, which was approved in 2007. 

The full-day program was designed to be cost-neutral for the district financially and that has largely played out, said Therese O’Neill, D97’s assistant superintendent for finance operations, who was hired in the district in 2010 after the program’s launch. 

With kindergarteners going full time, the district has received increased general state aid (GSA), based on average daily attendance, where the total amount of attendance days is divided by the number of students enrolled.

In the year prior to the program’s launch, the district had 45,080 attendance days, which jumped to 70,175 attendance days in the 2008 pilot year. During the district-wide rollout at the remaining schools, total kindergarten attendance in the district was 105,874 days. 

Enrollment in kindergarten has also gone up since the program’s launch. Roughly 500 kindergarteners have enrolled this year, according to D97 registration data. The district’s enrollment projections show student increases at all grade levels in the next five years. 

And while Oak Park has traditionally attracted parents looking for good schools, having a full-day program for kindergarteners has attracted more families, O’Neill noted. 

In 2009, the program brought in roughly $7.9 million to the district in general state aid. O’Neill estimates that without the full-day program, the district would have received just over $7 million. For the 2013-2014 school year, the program bought in about $9.3 million to the district. 

But since the economic downturn and budget cuts at the state level, D97, as well as other Illinois schools, have seen a gradual decrease in state aid, O’Neill said, resulting in the district incurring a small cost for the full-day program. 

“They don’t have the money,” she said of the state. “They’re basically trying to gerrymander what dollars they do have. They’ve cut back on transportation.; they’ve cut back on early childhood; they’ve cut back on reading. And historically, you didn’t touch GSA. But I think because there’s just not a lot of dollars to go around, they’ve shaved all of the places they think they could have.”

Historically, GSA was funded at 100 percent to school districts but it’s now down to 89 percent, O’Neill said

“It’s a little bit of a scary situation for us, going from 100 percent down to 89 percent; that’s about a million two [dollars], a nice chunk of change,” O’Neill said, adding that it’s been a gradual decrease in GSA to school districts. 

Though school districts were told it would go down to 82 percent funding, O’Neill said it has held steady at just under 90 percent. 

Since launching full-day K, the district has had to do some space juggling at the schools, including Lincoln School having to build a second-floor addition in 2011. The full-day program has also seen more kindergarten teachers hired in the district, including two more this school year. 

For the kids, going full day has been an adjustment, noted Poulton. For smaller-populated schools, like Hatch, it’s been a little less overwhelming for students, she said.

“My youngest daughter was so excited to go on the first day,” Poulton recalled. “She was excited to talk about what they did on the first day. Lunchtime seemed overwhelming because it was over so quick and a new experience. But I think, overall, it’s been good. What I like most is the extra time teachers can spend with students, and half-day just wasn’t enough time. Teachers have more time to evaluate what students need; when it was a shorter day, teachers didn’t have the time to do that.”

Poulton’s especially pleased that there’s more time with reading specialists at the schools.

The district, O’Neill said, has looked to keep those classrooms at around 18 students. For D97, the program, she noted, has been an overall success.

“In think first and foremost, the recognition was that the sooner you can get kids into school, the better success they have. I think that was one of very basic tenets.”