Harford County will need to hire 32 new teachers and add 11 new classrooms to some of its most crowded elementary schools next year to accommodate the state-required switch to all-day kindergarten classes.
Maryland passed a bill in 2002 making all-day kindergarten mandatory by 2007-08 with the intention of better preparing students for regular classes.
“The purpose of kindergarten is to help children hit the ground running when they reach first grade,” said Don Morrison, a spokesman for the county public school system.
The 2006-07 school year will be the last step in the county’s four-year conversion, which extends classes from two half-day sessions to one full-day session, five days a week ? effectively doubling the number of full-time-equivalent students, Morrison said. It will cost about $2 million, including about $50,000 per teacher for salaries and benefits and the cost of creating classroom space, Morrison said.
To make room, some upper grades were moved into trailers, said Executive Director of Elementary Education Patricia Skebeck.
Reading and math assistance teachers, special education teachers, guidance counselors and others are being moved into shared office space if they occupy classrooms that are not being used full time, Skebeck said.
She said an increased shift toward “inclusiveness” has helped. Students requiring special instruction are given additional help within their regular classrooms, instead of going to the resource rooms.
The conversion started in 2003 at the eight schools with the highest percentage of at-risk students, as measured by the number of students receiving free or reduced lunch. Because those schools happened to be in areas with less development and overcrowding, there were more open classrooms available for kindergarten, Morrison said.
In 2004, another eight schools changed to all-day kindergarten, requiring four new classrooms; in 2005 the next eight schools needed nine rooms.
There are no plans to build additional class space specifically for kindergarten, but such additions will instead be considered when schools are due for updates and renovations, Skebeck said.
