Questions remain as to whether staff will be employed by BASD or preschools
By Christopher Bennett
Correspondent
The Burlington Area School District’s Curriculum Committee took significant steps Monday toward formalizing the sites and format for the district’s 4-year-old kindergarten program.
The committee voted on recommendations for providers and the contract under which 4K will operate.
The recommendations will be considered by the full School Board at its May 12 meeting.
4K is scheduled to begin in the school district at the start of the 2014-15 school year.
The Curriculum Committee considered three sites and recommended two as providers.
Noah’s Ark Nursery School, 126 Chapel Terrace, and Plymouth Children’s Center, 124 W. Washington Street, are the two recommended community provider sites.
The Children’s House Preschool at CATHE Center, 126 E. State St., was not formally recommended by the committee, mainly due to concerns about a lack of handicapped accessibility. But that option still could be considered by the full board.
The committee also considered two contracts that will establish the type of staffing for the program – whether by district-employed personnel or provider-employed personnel.
The draft of the contract recommended by the committee calls for district personnel in teaching and administrative positions.
The draft of the contract that requires the providers to staff the program with its own teachers and administrators did not receive a recommendation.
Some portions of the contract will also be modified prior to potential board approval, according to Superintendent Peter Smet.
The amount of liability insurance to be carried by the provider is going to be further stipulated, and a plan to address early release days is also going to be included.
The topic of security drew the most concern regarding the potential contract. The contract will now include language regarding working with the provider on a mutually agreeable security plan. The district will help defray any initial costs associated with security measures.
Rating the sites
District 4K Coordinator Jacqueline Syens, the Principal at Winkler Elementary, gave a presentation about the rating system used to evaluate each site.
The district used a rating scale developed by the Franklin Porter Graham Child Development Institute, which is at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel, N.C., and is accepted as a national standard.
“It’s used in other school districts in Wisconsin that use 4K community providers,” Smet said.
Smet said all three sites proved acceptable and appropriate for 4K. The CATHE Center did not receive recommendation from the committee due to concerns regarding handicapped accessibility.
“The point of this is that we found a fairly objective rubric to evaluate the sites,” Smet said.
Peter Turk, a representative of the CATHE Center in attendance, said plans are being developed by the center to provide better handicapped accessibility, but did not specify a time frame.
During the meeting, Smet said the School Board can still consider the CATHE Center as a site even without the endorsement of the Curriculum Committee.
The same is true for the contracts. The School Board can consider the draft of the contract that exists for providers to staff the 4K program without the recommendation of the Curriculum Committee.
Concerns expressed
Committee Chairwoman Roseanne Hahn expressed concern over community providers utilizing non-district personnel.
“I think if they are handling our curriculum and teaching our students they should be a part of Burlington,” said Hahn.
Hahn also expressed concern about how responsibilities might be divided if a 4K teacher worked for the community provider. Hahn said she wondered how an individual teaching 4K and employed by a community provider would attend relevant district meetings and staff functions.
Both Smet and Syens said Burlington used contracts developed by the Elkhorn and Fort Atkinson school districts as models for its own. The two districts are the closest to Burlington that use the community provider model for 4K.
Smet said he hoped that the CATHE Center as a site and the contract that calls for community providers staffing 4K would still receive consideration from the School Board.
“My recommendation – the administration recommendation – is that we accept all three sites and then we accept proposals to have the two contracts,” Smet said.
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