By David F. Rooney
School District 19 trustees voted last Wednesday against instituting full-time Kindergarten classes for the city’s ready-for-school kids.
Trustees unanimously supported a recommendation by Superintendent Anne Cooper that full-time Kindergarten classes be postponed until the 2011-2012 school year by which time they will be fully-funded by the province.
The provincial Ministry of Education has been encouraging school boards to phase in full-day Kindergarten classes by initiating full-day classes for half of their eligible children.
Cooper told the board at its meeting last Wednesday that the district simply doesn’t have the budget to do it.
She said she had met with the Early Childhood Education Committee and the District Parents’ Advisory Committee on the issue and they supported her decision.
Caryn Molder, president of the Arrow Heights Elementary School PAC, said the DPAC “really respects the work (Cooper) as done” in Revelstoke and supports her recommendation.
