Proposed Budget Insufficient for All-Day Kindergarten

The East Haven school system can offer all-day kindergarten in the 2011-12 school year, but not on the budget that is currently proposed.

Plus, all-day kindergarten also requires the purchase of portable classrooms, according to and members of the , who spoke at a public hearing Monday on the school budget.

recommended a $44.3 million school budget for the next school year, an increase of $247,388, or .56 percent.

, which two Board of Education members, Chuck Scalesse and Tia DePalma, said is necessary to keep East Haven competitive with other school systems.

They urged the Legislative Town Council to act quickly enough to file the town’s application for state reimbursement funding for the portable classrooms before the end of June, because after that the state might change to a less generous reimbursement formula that could cost East Haven taxpayers more.

"This would be the time to do it and give it a go," said DePalma.

But two Town Council members, Paul Carbo and Richard Anania, noted that Gov. Dannel Malloy has said he might have to cut state aid to towns and cities up to 10 percent if state employee unions don’t give him contract concessions.

They argued against increasing spending until the state budget is less uncertain, and both voted against a $3,225,000 bond authorization that included $430,000 for the portable classrooms when it came up for a vote later in the evening.

The bond authorization passed, nevertheless, and the portable classroom money wasn’t their only objection. In fact, both men said they supported starting all-day kindergarten, if the town could afford it.

Serio said the Board of Education needed at least a 2.17 percent budget increase in order to start all-day kindergarten. More than three-quarters of that increase would pay for extra teachers and classroom materials for the program.

He also said all-day kindergarten would cost about $80,000 more than he thought when the Board of Education submitted its $45 million budget request for 2011-12.

Scalesse said educational research shows that all-day kindergarten improves student test scores, especially for economically disadvantaged children who are less likely to attend preschool.

He said 93 Connecticut school districts offer all-day kindergarten to some or all of their kindergartners.

Of the 15 systems in the same District Reference Group with East Haven, nine have it for all of their children and two for some.

Nearby districts with all-day kindergarten include New Haven, Hamden, North Haven and Branford.

"If we want to be competitive with the districts around us, I think we need to go to all-day kindergarten," Scalesse said.

DePalma said children who don’t get all-day kindergarten get lower test scores in later grades than those who did get it.

"By grade three, if they are a nonreader, there’s a 90 percent chance they will still be a nonreader in grade eight," she said.

Portable classrooms weren’t the only item in the bond authorization package. It also included $275,000 for other school improvements.

The package also included $1.1 million for new fire engines, $100,000 for municipal building improvements, $20,000 to fix a leak at the , $180,000 for vehicles and equipment, $500,000 for road paving, sidewalks and other street work, $255,000 for equipment and improvements at the , and $250,000 for new computers and a new telephone system for town offices.