THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2008
Dist. 23 Takes First Step Toward Full-Day Kindergarten
Prospect Heights School Dist. 23 board members recently approved implementing an at-risk full day kindergarten program beginning next school year at Ross and Eisenhower schools.
The district-wide program will include bilingual children and admittance will be based on screening results.
Spanish speaking children will attend Ross and Polish-speaking children will attend Eisenhower.
According to district officials, this is the first step in an effort to provide full-day kindergarten programming for all district students.
Classes will be held five days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
"This program will help work with youngsters that need longer days and more enrichment," said Supt. Dr. Greg Guarrine.
Guarrine said each class will consist of 12-14 students and one teacher per class. An additional teacher will have to be hired at around $40,000, because the district only has one teacher currently that can teach kindergarten.
Additionally, two part-time assistants will need to be hired to assist teachers with lunch and students going to the bathroom, and other ways so the other students are not left unattended. Guarrine said each of the assistant's salaries will range between $10,000-$12,000.
Board members also approved a bid to Palatine-based Bergen Construction in the amount of $2,696,000 to make roof and parking lot repairs.
According to Rick Ewanio, business manager, the majority of Sullivan and MacArthur school's roofs will be repaired and a portion of the roof at Ross will be replaced.
Ewanio said some of the roofs are 20-30 years old and need to be replaced because when it rains it leaks and teachers need to place buckets in their classrooms to collect water.
The other project entails paving along with installing walkways west of the schools.
According to Ewanio, the projects are expected to begin Monday, June 9 and be completed by the first week of August.
In other news, Dist. 23 was one of 91 districts in Illinois to be awarded the SchoolSearch 2008 Bright Red Apple Award of Excellence.
The award is based on five family-favored categories: academic performance, pupil/teacher ratio, operating expenditure per pupil, educational levels of teachers and average teacher salary.