Concord residents have a chance today to offer their thoughts about the school district potentially implementing full-day kindergarten.
At 5:30 p.m. in the 38 Liberty St. SAU office, district administrators will present five options for developing pre-school and kindergarten programs to a subcommittee of the school board.
Superintendent Terri Forsten said she’ll make a presentation to the instructional and finance committees, and then they’ll hear public input. The full board hopes to decide by the end of its Nov. 7 meeting which option to proceed with, she said.
The Early Childhood Education Steering Committee presented a 47-page report in June about potentially expanding offerings for the district’s youngest learners after eight months of studying the issue. Among the findings was that a move to full-day kindergarten would cost about $1.2 million in the first year, or roughly $83 a year for the owner of a $250,000 home
Forsten said that if the board decides to go in that direction, it’ll have to consider paring back in other areas.
“The board knows when you make that sort of investment, you have to look at other options and see what other programs you may need to discontinue or change” to make room in the budget for expanded early childhood education, she said.
(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @NickBReid.)