School District 46 (SD46) will offer full-day kindergarten at six of its nine elementary schools next fall.
"All the elementary schools but Roberts Creek, Halfmoon Bay and Cedar Grove are getting full-day K," board chair Silas White said.
SD46 recently circulated a survey asking parents of next year's kindergarteners if they wanted their children in the full-day program. White said those survey results were factored into the decision about where the program would be offered.
"It's partly because of space issues at those three schools; it's partly because it wasn't really in demand," he said of the decision to not offer the program at Roberts Creek, Halfmoon Bay and Cedar Grove. "At Roberts Creek there was a survey done, and it seemed like parents didn't really want it."
The Ministry of Education has committed to funding half the full-day K spots across the province for the 2010/11 school year. White said SD46 has been funded for 110 full-day spots -just over two-thirds of the district's approximately 150 currently-enrolled kindergarten students, and roughly half of the district's projected final kindergarten enrolment of just under 200.
District superintendent Deborah Palmer said the last few registrations tend to "dribble" in.
"We sent out another letter following that board meeting [April 13] to all parents in the school district, to just kind of say, 'Hey, this is the decision, if you've got someone in your family who hasn't registered or your next door neighbour's due to be in kindergarten, please encourage them to get in and get registered,'" she said.
Currently, White said, there are approximately 90 kindergarten students registered in the six elementary schools which will offer the full-day program: Madeira Park, West Sechelt, Kinnikinnick, Davis Bay, Gibsons and Langdale.
Allowing 20 spots leeway, he said, gives the district some latitude to accommodate any other kindergarteners who enrol at those schools between now and September.
"I imagine by September, at those schools selected, we'll be right up around that 110 number," he said.
