Community to vote on full-day kindergarten

Proposition will be put forth on May 19 alongside budget proposal

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Residents will have the opportunity to vote to approve the implementation of a full-day kindergarten program in the East Meadow School District in May’s budget vote, district officials announced at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting. If approved, a full-day program would be put in effect for the 2015-2016 school year.

Board of Education president Joseph Parisi explained that the vote for full-day kindergarten will be in a separate proposition from the budget, but that there will be a clear delineation of how its implementation  — if approved — would impact the 2015-16 spending plan.

The details of the spending plan, Parisi said, are still in the works, and he said it is too soon to say if a budget including full-day kindergarten would pierce the state’s tax levy cap on districts — which would require a supermajority — or if any programs or personnel would be cut.

Superintendent Louis DeAngelo said financial constraints in recent years have prevented East Meadow from expanding its kindergarten program, and that while circumstances have improved "a bit," he acknowledged there is still little room to operate. "We are functioning under a budget cap," he said, "with very little — if any — room to entertain something new.

"While we believe we have an oustanding kindergarten program," DeAngelo continued, "the thinking on the part of the Board and myself was to do the most democratic thing and put it on the ballot."

The announcement was met with rousing applause at Thursday’s meeting. Parents who have long advocated for full-day kindergarten hailed not only the decision, but the transparent process in which district officials came to it.

East Meadow is one of 18 school districts in the state — and one of two in Nassau County — that do not have a full-day kindergarten program. Parents have often expressed their fear at school board meetings that East Meadow children may be falling behind in a half-day program, in light of the adoption of the demanding Common Core State Standards.

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