Mokena Elementary Gets By With Half-Day Kindergarten

At the kindergarten open house at Mokena Elementary School on Sept. 14, it was business as usual. In Debi Blank's classroom, children played with yellow chalk at the blackboard, showed their parents their books and cubbyholes, and brought bracelets and knick-knacks from home to show their teacher. Parents checked the directory for errors and signed up for committees.

But the school day has not been business as usual for Blank or the other three kindergarten teachers at Mokena Elementary.

This year, teachers, administrators and parents have had to adjust to the reduction of the kindergarten from full-day to half-day, with one group of students attending in the morning and another in the afternoon.

"It's been a little rough," Blank said. 

Before, she and the other teachers had a 45-minute lunch break as well as a half-hour planning period. This year, she said, the teachers have had to adjust to a one-hour combined lunch break and planning period between morning and afternoon classes. They also get a 15-minute break while the kids are at recess, so the teachers have the same amount of prep and break time as before.

But Blank said the absence  of a set planning period makes it difficult to develop lesson plans. She said the combined hour gives her enough time to prepare her room for the next class, eat lunch and deal with administrative matters, but not enough time for planning. 

"We're really trying to cram stuff in," she said of her classes. "We are a little behind, but we're fitting it in here and there."

The reduction of the kindergarten program to half-day was one of a slew of cuts the school district has made over the past year to reduce its deficit. To date, it has made around $2.7 million in reductions, bringing the projected 2010-2011 deficit down by half.

Barbara Germany, the school board's business manager, said via email the district expected to save around $200,000 this year from the shorter kindergarten day.

"We looked at what was mandated and required by law and made our decision based on that," said Mokena School District 159 Superintendent Karen Perry.

The deficit has led the board to pursue a tax hike on the November ballot that would increase the property taxes in the school district by 29 cents per $100 of a home's assessed value.

If the measure passes, the kindergarten will go back to full-day for the 2011-2012 school year, Perry said. Without the money, there is "not a chance" full-day kindergarten will be restored, Perry said.

"Changes have not been made in the curriculum, but in the structure and format of the curriculum," Principal Steve Stein said.

Previously, kindergarten students worked on academics, such as reading and math, in the mornings, while the afternoon was dedicated to "extension activities," or exercises that emphasize what was learned in the morning. These included artwork, writing exercises and play-based learning activities. They also had a lunch period and recess.

Now, students have 75 minutes for language arts and an hour for math, along with a 15-minute recess and a 10-minute snack time. The extension activities, however, are no longer a part of their day. Stein said he is confident the students will still be prepared for the first grade, but the format is far from ideal. He has had to cut specials—art, music and gym—from the curriculum, and the limited time makes it more difficult to complete lessons in the school's computer lab.

"To take a class of 17 5-year-olds into a computer lab, an environment to which they are not acclimated, it takes a long time," Stein said.

Blank agreed.

"At this point, we probably will not be able to get time to go (into the computer lab) until winter," she said. She added that, with the reduction in building aides, it has also been difficult to bring her class to the learning center.

The decision to go half-day appears to have affected enrollment as well.

Last year, the school enrolled 185 kindergarten students. This year, it enrolled fewer than 140. While Stein said he noticed there has been a recent trend toward smaller class size in general at Mokena Elementary over the past few years, he called this year's enrollment a "big discrepancy."

To accommodate parents' schedules and to provide more educational and social opportunities for the kids, the school has teamed up with Kinderbridge, a program through Ivy League before that provides Montessori-style daycare before and after school.

However, Stein said these are not akin to the usual extension activities, and Kinderbridge and Mokena Elementary have yet to team up to form a cohesive learning plan that would integrate the school's curriculum with Kinderbridge. Stein said the school currently has 13 students enrolled in Kinderbridge.

According to the Ivy League Schools' website, the instruction can cost up to $113 per child per week, depending on the program.

Parent Julie Swatkowski said she enrolled her daughter in kindergarten because she felt like "had no choice." The waiting list for the Catholic school she wanted to enroll in was too long.

She said she was skeptical that Mokena Elementary's teachers could complete their lessons in half a day.

"They're going to try and cram everything in a couple of hours," she said.

Swatkowski said she works a few days a week and has had to adjust her schedule to accommodate the half-day program.

Pam Sanders said she enrolled her daughter Emily in kindergarten this year because her older daughter had attended.

"I know the teachers are doing their best to get in what they need to get in," Sanders said. Though she said she was disappointed that the music, art and P.E. had been cut, "the most important thing is still there."

To view the reductions the school district has made, go to mokena159.org, click on "Board of Education," then click on "Board Reductions."