Full-time kindergarten will continue in Peace River School Division (PRSD) for the 2017-18 school year.
Berwyn’s Lloyd Garrison School is one of three Peace River School Division Schools providing full-time kindergarten. (Photo/PRSD)
Currently, the program is offered at École Springfield Elementary School in Peace River, Kennedy Elementary School in Grimshaw, and at Lloyd Garrison School in Berwyn.
But, due to its high operating costs, full-time kindergarten won’t be expanded to its other schools this year.
Darren Kuester, the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, said in an Press Release that the PRSD isn’t able to sustain the more than $309-thousand cost to run the option in all of their communities during the long-term.
“In order to expand full-time kindergarten in our school division, we would be taking from other areas of the budget which would compromise overall student programming and staffing,” said Kuester.
He says even though full-time kindergarten’s a great convenience in many ways, educational research shows no long-term advantages of full-time over part-time kindergarten.
While the release says the provincial government does provide funding for part-time kindergarten, it doesn’t do so for the full-time option. It leaves the school boards to supplement the funding to make full-time kindergarten available.
– Posted by BET
