The Sea to Sky School Board has proposed a plan to offer full-day kindergarten to all five-year-old students in the district, but B.C.'s Ministry of Education has already rejected the suggestion.
According to a government spokesperson, the ministry has not approved the board's plan because it does not fit with a province-wide initiative that will allow every five-year-old in B.C. access to kindergarten by the 2011/2012 school year.
"It doesn't fit with the phase-in plan that, after a lot of consultation, was worked out," the spokesperson said.
Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid was not available for comment.
Under the ministry's full-day kindergarten implementation plan, only about half of B.C.'s students will start the full-day program this September, and all students would have full-day access in September 2011.
"Many school districts throughout the province are challenged by the current plan and we have offered the ministry a creative solution that we hope will be supported," board chair Rick Price said.
While the province is funding full-day spots for 194 students in the Sea to Sky District, about 300 kids are expected to enrol in kindergarten, leaving more than 100 out of the full-day program.
That leaves school districts with the task of deciding which schools, or which individual students, will be offered the expanded program this fall, said Price.
"We just don't like the idea of creating a kind of winners and losers, haves and have-nots scenario," Price said. "We like to try and treat everyone the same."
Using the board's proposed scenario, Sea to Sky elementary schools would provide half-day kindergarten to all students from September to Christmas, and full-day kindergarten for the remainder of the 2010/2011 school year. First Nations, low-incidence special education and ESL students would begin full days in September. Other education programs would not be impacted.
Price said in earlier conversations with ministry staff members, Sea to Sky board members were told their proposal probably wouldn't work, but the board decided to appeal to MacDiarmid directly in a letter to reconsider the idea of offering full-day kindergarten throughout the Sea to Sky Corridor by January, 2011.
With the appeal's rejection, nearly 40 per cent of the district's kindergarten-age students are left out of the program for the full 2010-2011 school year, according to a district news release.
A ministry spokesperson said implementing full-day kindergarten in B.C. is a "huge undertaking" and the Sea to Sky board's suggestion is too much of a departure from what other districts are doing, the spokesperson said Monday (Feb. 15).
"The minister was appreciative of the creative thinking in coming up with an alternativeway, but just not in a position to approve that approach for the 2010/2011 school year," the ministry spokesperson said.
On Monday, Price said it's "news to me" that the minister has rejected the proposal. If that's the case, he said, he'd like an explanation.
"We're puzzling about why the answer would be 'no' to what seems like quite a fair way of doing what the government intended," he said.
The B.C. government has pledged $151 million over two years to implement full-day kindergarten in the province. According to information on the education ministry website, students offered full-day kindergarten "will have more time for deeper learning and exploration, and teachers will also be able to spend more time with students who require extra support" than those who remain in the half-day program.
"This difference will only exist for one year, since by September 2011 all children will have access to full-day kindergarten," states the site.
