Waldwick October 5, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 7 Waldwick Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patricia Raupers has established a committee that will review preliminary proposals that could bring all-day kindergarten to the district. Two years ago, the district, which was then under the leadership of Superintendent Dr. Robert Penna, had developed a plan to bring all-day kindergarten to Waldwick as early as September of 2011. That plan was sidelined after the district lost approximately $1.2 million in state aid. Last week, Dr. Raupers said that, in light of the new state guidelines, higher expectations established by the state, the professional opinions of district educators, and many requests from parents, she decided to meet with other district officials to conduct research, review standards, and develop proposals to revive the all-day kindergarten concept. Crescent School Principal Dr. Diane Mardy, Traphagen School Principal Robert Sileo, and Director of Special Services Victoria Wilson will be working with Dr. Raupers to collect information and review the educational standards. The superintendent pointed out that the new guidelines Officials explore ways to launch all-day kindergarten and curriculum standards are very difficult to accomplish with the district’s current two-and-a-half hour kindergarten program. She said the New Jersey Department of Education is requiring kindergarten students to work on various skills relating to math, science, and language arts. In addition, she noted that kindergarten students need time to work on emotional, academic, and social development as they learn self-regulation and decision-making skills. “They’ve raised the bar, and it’s difficult to achieve all they want in such a short period of time,” Dr. Raupers said. The educator noted that meeting all of the educational goals requires more class time. She added that over 70 percent of the state’s school districts currently offer all-day kindergarten programs, making it difficult for Waldwick to compete with other districts. The educator also said that recent research shows that early exposure to vocabulary and print materials in general leads to improved comprehension at the middle school level. “Getting started sooner with pre-literacy leads to a better payoff,” she summarized. Since Raupers joined the district last year, she said she has heard multiple requests from parents who want to see all-day kindergarten in Waldwick. “Parents are anxious to see us work on this,” she acknowledged. “The educational community is united in the belief that this (all-day kindergarten) is important,” Raupers added. “We had a plan that had to be abandoned. The key to that program was the construction of a new, $5 million building on the grounds of the Traphagen School. The plan was to replace the two side-by-side trailers on Summit Avenue known as Building 11. The district commissioned an architectural drawing from Joseph DiCara of DiCara Rubino which showed where everything would fit on the school grounds. The $5 million would have come from capital improvement funds, rather than a new bond issue. The plan was to divert funds from the district’s renovation budget and apply to the state for a construction grant, the amount of which would be determined by the state in the future, to offset the cost of the new construction.