Title I preschool option heads to WGSD board

4K option remains in talks

 By Dave Fidlin

 Correspondent

Will the Waterford Graded School District decide to begin offering 4-year-old kindergarten, a Title I preschool program, or both?

That issue was revisited Aug. 5 at the School Board’s Policy and Curriculum Committee meeting, and a variety of sub-issues – including cost, effectiveness, marketability and impact on other Waterford-area daycares and schools – were discussed.

The feasibility of bringing 4K to Waterford Graded has continuously cropped up in recent years, and is again being hashed over for a possible roll-out in the 2014-15 school year. Last month, the board met with officials from a private company that provides 4K to a number of southeastern Wisconsin districts.

One of the greatest sticking points throughout the 4K discussion has been the overarching question of whether the offering puts children at a greater advantage for success in the years that follow.

“I think it’s important we increase our academic rigor,” said board member Dawn Bleimehl, who has been an advocate for 4K. “The state standards are changing, and (4K) is something that could make us marketable.”

The board has been commissioning research on the effectiveness of 4K in districts, although it has been difficult finding concrete data within Wisconsin.

But from a purely psychological standpoint, research continues to point out a child’s early years are pivotal when it comes to learning.

“The kids do learn a lot in those first few years,” board member Doug Schwartz noted. “But where do you balance it? We’ve been losing state aid.”

If a 4K program were to move forward, Waterford Graded would stand to receive more state aid money – the district’s second largest source of income – but there would also be start-up costs, and state aid is based on a three-year rolling average of enrollment.

Board member Paul Beyerl said he believes the district’s expectations of where students should be, academically, on their first day of school is important.

“I think we should work with the existing daycare centers and the parents and articulate that,” Beyerl said. “People need to know what the district’s expectations are on that first day.”

While Waterford Graded does not offer 4K at the moment, there are other nearby providers offering the same, or similar, programming, including other public schools, local daycare centers and St. Thomas Aquinas Parish School.

Board member Robert Kastengren said he is concerned Waterford Graded’s implementation of 4K would negatively impact the other service providers.

“I do feel bad about that,” Bleimehl said, in response. “But I also feel we need to be the best district we can be. (Other providers) might just need to change their focus of who they’re serving.”

In addition to 4K, the district is grappling with the option of offering a Title I preschool program that would be specifically targeted toward children with academic needs. Federal grant dollars could go toward funding such an offering.

Board member Dan Jensen, who in the past has likened 4K to “free daycare,” was not present at the committee meeting.

The committee voted to forward the Title I preschool issue on to the next full board meeting on Monday, Aug. 19, for possible action. Discussion on the feasibility of 4K will continue into the foreseeable future.

Waterford Graded is the only one of the four K-8 feeder districts in the Waterford Union High School system not to offer K4. The offering has been a staple in Drought and North Cape schools, and the Washington-Caldwell School District will begin offering 4K in the fall.

About 90 percent of Wisconsin’s public school districts offer some form of K4 programming, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.