Jan 18, 2016 By Cara Host 4 min read

The idea of establishing a kindergarten center at Bethel Park won’t come to fruition until fall 2017, if it happens at all, school officials said at a curriculum committee meeting Jan. 13.

The district is considering converting William Penn Elementary School to a kindergarten-only center and distributing first through fourth graders to the other four elementary schools. But, administrators will need at least a year or so to investigate the different factors that will go into the final decision.

“It’s a huge undertaking merely to look at this,” said Dorothy Stark, director of elementary education.

Administrators said a kindergarten center is an alternative to frequent redistricting as another way to deal with shifting population trends and uneven class sizes. Stark said a kindergarten center may also help teachers identify students with special needs earlier and to implement more effective intervention techniques.

The kindergarten center may allow the district to expand its full-day kindergarten program and open it to more students, but most children will still be enrolled in the half-day program. In general, at-risk and special needs children attend kindergarten all day.

However, the center may allow the district to offer day care services to working parents.

The center will have a financial impact, since it may require additional bus runs and moving some part-time kindergarten teachers to full time. Administrators do not anticipate a need for extensive remodeling of classrooms. Furniture will be moved and there might be some minor maintenance work, such as painting. However, director Russ Spicuzza asked administrators to investigate whether building codes would be different in a kindergarten-only building rather than a K-4 building.

Some kindergarteners will be on the bus longer, and board members asked administrators to find out how much longer.

“I see transportation as a huge piece of the decision,” said director Cynthia Buckley.

Nearby school districts, such as Baldwin and South Allegheny, have established centers for children in kindergarten and first grades. School districts in eastern Pennsylvania, in Phoenixville and Upper Darby, have kindergarten-only centers. Bethel Park officials said they may visit those centers or reach out to educators there to learn about some of the advantages and disadvantages of having a building for the youngest students.

Students in a kindergarten center will move to one of the four other elementary schools when they graduate to first grade and parent Rebecca Walker worries about the negative impact a transition like that could have on the young students.

“Lifelong friends are made in kindergarten and then the kids get split up,” she told the board.

Walker said she spoke for about a dozen other concerned parents. She also pointed out that it would be nearly impossible to have a parent-teacher organization at a kindergarten center. It takes time and experience to establish effective fundraising techniques. It’s not feasible to expect parents of kindergarteners to do the job, especially since their children will only be in the school for a year, she said.

Bathroom breaks are another concern, Walker said. Small bathrooms are often adjacent to kindergarten classrooms, but if William Penn is converted to a kindergarten center, some students will have to go to the building’s main bathroom down the hall.

“You can’t always rely on a 5-year-old to tell you when he has to go,” Walker said.

School officials will spend the next several months investigating these issues to give board members a clearer picture of how the kindergarten center idea will work. It will be about a year before the school board makes a decision on whether or not to pursue the idea.

“I think everyone can see that this is a study in progress,” said board president Donna Cook.