In Case You Missed It ...
Mar 2, 2009 9:55 pm US/Central
Some Upset By Half-Days For Keller Kindergarteners
KELLER (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Keller mom Kelly Morgan was looking forward to her son starting kindergarten this year.
"My son is five and starts kindergarten in the fall," Morgan said. "He was really excited because the school is right behind our house, and it will ne so nice to walk over there take him to school and come home. Now they've decided all the schools are going to full day, but ours is one of the six that is not."
The school district decided to accelerate plans to make all kindergarten classes seven hours instead of three hours long. But some schools, the district says, just don't have the space to add the extra students this year.
The district's website states the following schools will still have half day classes: Hidden Lakes, Independence, Lone Star, North Riverside, Whitley Road and Woodland Springs
Parents worry students at these schools will be left behind academically.
"It should be an equal opportunity for every student in the district," Morgan said. "We're not talking about a tennis program and one school has got it and the other doesn't. We're talking about math, reading, social studies and science."
The district says it can't afford portable buildings so the schools will have to wait an extra year for new space to come or, if it has to, redraw school boundaries.
The district tells parents in an online list of questions and answers about the schedule, "When we were making the decision regarding transitioning, we determined that it was better for our students to provide as many with a full-day program as soon as possible versus waiting until they could all transition at one time."
Click here for the full statement (.pdf file).
Jennifer Yhea will have one child have the half day plan, and two others will go a full day when the school finally changes the school's schedule next year.
"We really like him to be exposed as much as possible social-wise and academics-wise," Yhea said of her first son who will miss the extra four hours of class.
But other parents said they actually want the shorter school days.
"I was just kind of looking forward to that extra year of having me and my baby, my four-year-old at home," said DaLana Barsanti, a mother whose son will have the full day schedule said. "So, I'm tossed. I'm mixed."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
RAW VIDEO: 100-Mile Police Chase
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments