Full Day Kindergarten in Yorkville Unlikely for 2014-15 School Year

For parents wondering if full day kindergarten  in Yorkville 115 will be an option for next school year, the answer is most likely no.

School board president Dave Docksteader said the board discussed the issue about eight months ago and agreed that no decision could be made until a boundary study was completed.

“The issue we have is space,” said Docksteader. “We are growing so dramatically. We have to see if we would have space for an all day kindergarten program.”

However, the board has expressed that they feel all day kindergarten would be good for the district.

Superintendent Tim Shimp said they are hoping to have a recommendation to the school board in January about the results of the boundary survey, which he described as “two-layered.”

We have some buildings that are quickly getting to capacity that we we’re looking at,” said Shimp. “We’re also identifying our special programs that we have or would like to have,” like full day kindergarten, special education and ELL.

Shimp said that as of right now, the current configuration would not support kindergarten in all of the elementary schools.

“We have to ask, where would the programs go? Would we have kindergarten centers? What would our buildings look like? What would transportation?”

Shimp said that as of right now the district is not anticipating having full day kindergarten for fall next year, and if it were to be considered it would likely be a part of a larger plan for 2015.

From January to June next year Shimp said the district would begin looking at the facilities and what the possibility of full day kindergarten could look like.

The boundary committee will be having a town hall meeting sometime in the first week of December to share with the community their progress and allow parents to ask questions.