Board of Education Approves All-Day Kindergarten

The East Haven Board of Education Tuesday adopted its budget for fiscal year 2011-12 and voted to go ahead with implementing all-day kindergarten in September.

The decisions came following assurance by town Finance Director Thomas Thompson that the board had the money it needed for all-day kindergarten, and word that the town could purchase eight portable classrooms at much less cost than expected.

While the school board met at East Haven High School, the School Building Committee met in Town Hall to authorize the portable classroom purchase.

The two decisions were not made without dissent, however.

Chairman Nick Palladino cast a tie-breaking vote for the 5-4 budget approval, and two Republicans voted against implementing all-day kindergarten because of all the economic and fiscal uncertainties that remain unresolved for the schools and the town.

The two Republicans, Thomas Hennessey and Ronald DeNuzzo, said they were not against all-day kindergarten itself, though.

Hennessey said he couldn’t vote for it without seeing the curriculum that would be used or an estimate of the number of children that would enroll.

School officials said they couldn’t project the number of students until the open enrollment period concluded in June, but they would have it for the board next month.

DeNuzzo noted the economy is still bad, unemployment is high, gasoline prices are high and rising, the board faces salary increases and rising costs for school buses in the coming year, and the board had received the last of the federal stimulus money for education.

He acknowledged that many parents wanted all-day kindergarten but he felt this is not the time to start a new spending program because it could cause another round of teacher and staff layoffs.

"I’m concerned that the same thing that happened last year will happen again," he said.

DeNuzzo urged the school board to put the decision off for two years and see if economic conditions improve.

Other Board of Education members urged approval because of the educational benefits that all-day kindergarten could provide.

Educational research has shown that students who get all-day kindergarten have higher test scores in later grades than students who don’t.

"There are too many kids who can’t read when they get to third grade," said board member Tia DePalma.

The kindergarten program passed on a 6-2 vote.

Finance Director Thomas Thompson appeared at the invitation of the Board of Education’s Finance Committee to confirm optimistic budget projections for employee health insurance the committee had received.

However, Thompson did not confirm what the committee had believed. He told them $236,000 in savings actually were nonexistent.

But Thompson nevertheless confirmed that the board did have enough money to start all-day kindergarten.

The portable classrooms provided more good news.

Mayor April Capone and Deputy Director of Town Service Ralph Mauro were able to negotiate the purchase of eight used portable classrooms from Newtown for $200,000, according to Board of Education Vice Chairman Raymond Pompano, who is also chairman of the Buildings and Grounds Committee.

School Superintendent Anthony Serio said that is less money than they thought it would cost for three portable classrooms, plus the state would reimburse 75 percent of the price.

He said the classrooms can be disassembled, transported to East Haven and reassembled as a connected temporary wing at Overbrook School in time to start all-day kindergarten in the fall.