PERRYSBURG – The fate of all-day kindergarten remains up in the air for Perrysburg Schools.
The school board voted 4-1 Tuesday night to allow the district to move forward with an application for a
waiver from the state that would exempt them from mandated all-day kindergarten for the 2011-2012 and
2012-2013 school years. But new legislation in the Ohio House and questions of how the district would
implement all-day kindergarten, if at all, are complicating the issue.
House Bill One, which was passed during the previous biennium, precludes districts from charging for
all-day kindergarten beginning in the 2011-2012 year, despite the waiver. Board member Gretchen Downs
was the lone dissenting vote on the waiver issue.
Speaking Wednesday, Superintendent Tom Hosler said that implementation of all-day kindergarten
district-wide would create a budgetary hole of over $505,000, at a minimum. He said that the board must
understand that if all-day kindergarten is implemented, some other program, or staffing, will have to be
reduced.
"Because our budget right now without it is so tight," he explained.
Information Hosler prepared for the meeting indicates that the district collects over $273,000 in fees
for all-day kindergarten, which "is the amount needed to pay for the staff for the half of the day
that is not state-funded."
Hosler also said that there are variables with all-day kindergarten, including the fact that the district
has budgeted with the assumption that there will be a 10 percent reduction in state aid. They are now
looking at a potential reduction of 20 percent, creating a budgetary swing of $800,000.
A second variable, he said, is legislation introduced by State Rep. Randy Gardner Tuesday that if passed,
among other things, would allow school districts to opt out of mandated all-day kindergarten, meaning
that the district could continue to charge as it has been.
Hosler said that in a telephone conversation with Gardner, the state representative said he was highly
confident the bill could be passed as early as March.
Hosler said that board members expressed that they valued all-day kindergarten and that a goal of the
district is to offer it for all students, but given budget cuts and serious classroom restrictions, it
is not the time for it.
The board he said, did not make a decision on the issue but he recommended that the district be allowed
to offer and register next year’s all-day kindergarten class as though they were continuing the present
program, but with an asterisk indicating that it is pending legislative approval.
If the legislation is not approved, he said a Plan B is needed, of which there are two: either fully
implement all-day kindergarten and find the funds to make it happen, or back away from it entirely,
applying for a waiver and explaining to the state they can’t afford to implement the program or do note
have appropriate space.
He said the board may hold a special meeting between now and early February to come to terms with the
issue.
Hosler noted that the district is already under an all-day kindergarten waiver from the state. The new
waiver would allow them to offer either partial all-day kindergarten without a fee, or not offer it at
all.
Some community members did speak up at the meeting, he said.
"I think they’re concerned about not knowing what’s going to happen in the future." Residents
want a decision made so they can make definite plans.
One person expressed a desire for the district to go forward with all-day kindergarten for all students,
and a second expressed displeasure with the district’s half-time kindergarten program, which meets every
other day and alternating Fridays. They wished for a return to a daily half-day program if all-day
kindergarten was not feasible. A third speaker echoed the sentiments of the other two, Hosler said.
In the information prepared by Hosler, without all-day kindergarten "the district could lose
kindergarten students to programs that offer ADK." Of the 307 kindergartners in the district, 134,
or 44 percent, chose it. It would also result in the loss of three teaching and six monitor positions,
saving about $217,000, not counting unemployment costs.