District gets to work on creating 4K program
Podcast Episode
Kyle Geissler talks with Janesville Gazette reporter Frank Schultz about preparations for 4-year-old kindergarten.
JANESVILLE — The Janesville School District administration is wasting no time in getting its newly approved program for 4-year-olds ready for its September debut.
Superintendent Tom Evert announced in a Dec. 28 memo to the school board that he wants to hire a program coordinator “right away” in the new year.
Evert will seek board approval for the hiring at Tuesday’s school board meeting. The money would come from “contingency funds,” he said in the memo.
The program is called Preschool 4 Janesville, or P4J. The school board approved it on a 6-3 vote Dec. 10.
The new coordinator will have much to coordinate.
The program offers a preschool opportunity—often referred to as 4-year-old kindergarten—for any family that wants it. Participation is voluntary.
The program will involve existing preschool providers who agree to join, but the district would set up its own sites if community sites are insufficient.
The program would include a common curriculum and certified teachers. Teachers could be employed by a private preschool or by the school district.
The 4-year-olds will attend the program will last 2-1/2 hours a day, four days a week.
Parents will be able to choose the site they believe is best for their child. Religion-based preschools may participate, although they must refrain from teaching religion during the 2-1/2 hours.
Many—including some presidential candidates—see high-quality preschool as a solution to societal problems. The theory goes that giving all children the same opportunity early in life will pay off in the long run with more productive citizens, economic growth and fewer dropouts, truancy, behavior problems and crime.
Critics—including some board members—questioned whether the program would draw the children who could benefit from it the most.
“The administration pledges to do all possible to make it work,” Evert wrote in his memo.
Jan 3, 2008 at 11:40 p.m.
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Anybody know where Evert's "contingency fund" comes from? Especially when "The district has cut programs and positions in the last two years' budgets, and the administration has said another round of cuts is on the way for 2008-09," as quoted from the Gazette article regarding school board candidates. Is this "contingency fund" the JEA's unspent insurance money? Could the "contingency fund" be used to settle the dispute between the JEA and the JSD and put an end to job actions and bickering back and forth?
Jan 3, 2008 at 9 p.m.
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simon, what do you mean by "real educational tools"?
Jan 3, 2008 at 2:56 p.m.
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Maybe they could find a coordinator who already works in the district; the same place where they found the leaders for the new TAGOS school. Talk around town is they are some real educational tools!
Jan 3, 2008 at 2:13 p.m.
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Evert wanted it all along, that is why the committee that was formed to evaluate the need for 4K in Janesville didn't mean a hoot to the administration. They wanted it, they played the political game and they got their way. KUDOS to the Great Janesville School District. Now if the administration could learn how to negotiate fairly with its teacher, then they will rally be batting a thousand.
Jan 3, 2008 at 1:03 p.m.
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I bet the "Many-including presidential candidates" that see it as a solution to societal problems lean to the left. You know there is nothing that a few more tax dollars and governmental control can't cure, I wish they would realize that this and No Child Left Behind are high priced band-aids on the gushing wound that is the loss of family values and parents taking responsibility for their own children.
Jan 3, 2008 at 12:34 p.m.
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you listed the class is 22 hours a day. what is the correct number of hours?
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