Stowsentry.com - Board OKs applying for waiver to delay all-day kindergarten

by Marsha McKenna

Senior Editor

Stow -- With the approval of the Board of Education Jan. 25, the district has decided to delay state-mandated all-day kindergarten for the 2010-11 school year.

The district now will request a waiver from the state's mandate of implementing all-day kindergarten in the 2010-11 school year, which Supt. Dr. Russ Jones said will most likely be approved.

The resolution will be submitted to the Ohio Department of Education, along with the district's reason for the delay and a plan to implement the all-day kindergarten in 2011-12. The waiver request must be submitted by the end of this school year.

Gov. Ted Strickland's plan to require the all-day kindergarten in all Ohio school districts was part of his two-year budget plan.

However, after districts complained about a lack of money for the unfunded mandate, Strickland signed Ohio House Bill 318, which allows districts to apply for a one-year waiver. Districts must demonstrate hardships, such as space or financial.

Jones said it was estimated the implementation would have cost about $200,000 with a little less than half of that offset by the elimination of the midday bus routes. He added the cost would be for three or four more teachers. Furniture and supplies would have added a couple thousand dollars, he noted.

Some neighboring districts such as Cuyahoga Falls and Hudson are also asking for the waiver. Both districts have estimated their costs for implementing all-day kindergarten to be more than $700,000 for additional staff, furniture and supplies.

The cost of implementing the Stow program in the next school year wasn't possible with the district's current financial state, explained Jones.

With current revenue, the district will be unable to meet its expenses and payroll as of July 1, 2012, as predicted by Treasurer Catherine Bulgrin in the five-year forecast, says Jones. A deficit of more than $3.3 million is projected.

Presently, the district offers an all-day kindergarten program with a tuition of about $2,862 a school year. Currently, the district has 364 kindergarten students in both the half-day classes and the tuition all-day classes offered.

Kindergarten registration for the 2010-11 year will be April 8 at 7 p.m. at Stow-Munroe Falls High School. Students must be 5 years old by Sept. 30 to enter kindergarten. Detailed information is available on the district Web site, www.smfschools.org, under parent information.

Library levy on May ballot

At its Jan. 25 meeting, the Board of Education also voted to have the Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library place a 2-mill continuous operating levy on the May 4 ballot. By law, the School Board must approve placing the levy before voters. All voters in the school district would vote on the library levy.

If approved by voters in May, the levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $72 a year, about $36 more a year than what the current levy collects. Collection would begin in 2011.

The levy issue would be a replacement levy. The first operating levy in the library's 80-year history, for 1 mill, was approved in 2005 for a five-year period. The new levy would replace the 1 mill levy plus add an additional 1 mill.

If approved, the 2-mill levy would generate $1.972 million annually, based on the Summit County fiscal office's current tax valuation of $986,052,730 for the district.

The library's board of trustees had approved seeking the levy in December.