The Chichester School District will put the question of full-day kindergarten to voters this year.

The school board is still finalizing the budget it will present to voters, but is expecting to pitch a budget less than one percent over the $6,183,630 spending plan for this year, according to school board Chairwoman Sally Kelly. Upon its last revision in December, the proposed budget for 2017-18 stood at $6,202,890, a 0.31 percent increase. The board hopes to vote on a final budget proposal and warrant Jan. 18.

With dwindling numbers in its kindergarten class and a modest budget increase, Kelly said the board felt this was the year to pitch full-day kindergarten as a warrant article to voters.

“You cannot find any academic study that speaks against full-day kindergarten,” Kelly said, adding that it put students whose parents couldn’t pay for a full-day program at a disadvantage.

In SAU 53, Chichester’s neighbors in Deerfield, Allenstown and Pembroke already have full-day programs. Epsom also still has a half-day program.

“And the thing is, we can do it for pretty short money,” Kelly said.

The board still hasn’t finalized the warrant article, but believes it could pay to expand its existing program to a full-day one by budgeting for the cost of one teacher and $1,000 in supplies.

The district used to offer two sessions of half-day programming, but because of dwindling enrollment, it cut back to one. If enrollment doesn’t bump up by much, it might not even have to hire an extra teacher, Kelly said.

Chichester Central School will open kindergarten registration early this year – on Wednesday – to get a better idea of how many students it will ultimately enroll.

The subject of full-day kindergarten came up again this year as gubernatorial candidates debated the merits increasing state aid to districts who move to full-day programs. The race’s winner, Republican Chris Sununu, who was inaugurated this week, has expressed support to provide more funding, and a bill was recently introduced – with bipartisan sponsors – to do so.

But Kelly said the board was backing full-day kindergarten in Chichester independent of statewide conversations, and wasn’t counting the Legislature to come through.

The district will hold a public hearing on the budget and warrant at 6 p.m. on Feb. 8 at the school, with a Feb. 9 snow date. Voting on the district’s budget and warrant articles will take place March 11.

Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect that the Chichester School District and the Town of Chichester vote on their respective budget and warrant articles on different days. 

(Lola Duffort can be reached at 369-3321 or lduffort@cmonitor.com.)