HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-12-03, Page 12Details continue to trickle outabout the September, 2010 phaseone roll-out of the provincial
Education Ministry’s full-day, every-
day programming for four and five
year-olds.
But as those details emerge, and
school boards delve more deeply
into how they will deliver the
initiative, numerous questions also
emerge.
Trustees from both the Huron-
Perth Catholic and Avon Maitland
District School Boards received
updates on the initiative during
regular meetings last week.
“This is being presented (by the
Ministry) as a five-year plan,”
explained Huron-Perth literacy
coordinator Dawne Boersen. On
Oct. 27, board-by-board funding
commitments were announced for
the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school
years. Beyond that, Boersen said,
“we don’t really have any
information about what years three,
four and five will look like.”
In the Huron-Perth board, funding
will be made available for
implementation in three
kindergarten classrooms – each with
26 students – next September, and
two more in 2011.
In the Avon Maitland board, it will
be 10 classrooms in 2010-11 and
five more the following year. In each
case, that amounts to roughly 15 per
cent of the board’s kindergarten
enrolment – in keeping with the
funding allotments for other boards
across the province.
Applications for that funding must
be submitted by Friday, Nov. 27,
with confirmation expected back
from the Ministry some time in
January. After last week’s Huron-
Perth meeting, Boersen said her
board had not yet determined which
sites would be included in its
application.
But Avon Maitland trustees were
informed that the following sites
would be included in that board’s
2010-11 application: two classrooms
at Clinton Public School, three
classrooms at Howick Central Public
School, two classrooms at Milverton
Public School, two classrooms at
Downie Central Public School and
one classroom at Romeo Public
School in Stratford.
The Education Ministry identified
a series of factors that boards should
consider, including: a minimal need
for capital investment, a high
likelihood that the host school will
remain open over the next five years,
a scarcity of existing childcare
services in the community, and less-
than-satisfactory results from the
school in standardized tests.
“A (host) school does not need to
meet all of the criteria,” explains an
Oct. 27 Ministry memorandum.
“Each board’s recommendations
should address these criteria butshould also consider the needs andcircumstances of students, parentsand communities” as well asconsultations with the co-terminousschool board and other child service
providers.
“Boards should try to assess the
level of readiness in the schools and
the communities for
implementation,” Huron-Perth
education superintendent JoAnn
MacGregor informed trustees.
Additionally, according to a report
provided to Avon Maitland trustees,
“there is an ‘all or nothing’approach
. . . in that all JK/SK classes in a
school must become full day
learning classes where a site is
chosen.”
Wherever the sites are approved
across the province, the
programming will take a similar
form: a combination between school
board-style Kindergarten curriculum
and daycare-style Early Childhood
Education (ECE) expertise.
Programming will begin at 7 a.m.
and run through 6 p.m.
According to Boersen’s
presentation, one ECE will be in the
classroom from 7-11 a.m. They will
be joined at 9 a.m. by a Kindergarten
teacher. After 11 a.m., the first ECE
will complete their time and be
replaced by a second ECE. At 3:30
p.m. the Kindergarten teacher will
leave and the second ECE will
remain until 6 p.m.
“The three adults will be a team,”
Boersen said. “The extended
learning program (outside the
regular 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. school
day) will tie in to what’s happening
during the school day . . . It’s a
different program from the
Kindergarten program we’re running
now. The main goal will be to ease
those transitions.”
At a demonstration pilot project in
London, Boersen reported, students
“didn’t really notice whether it was
the ECE or the Kindergarten teacher.
The adults in the room worked
together to make it seamless for the
kids.”
Outside of regular school hours,
participation will not be mandatory.
And funding will not be universal.
Subsidization will be available, on a
sliding scale based on each family’s
needs, in much the same way as
support is currently available for
municipally-administered Best Start
childcare programming.
“Parents know what’s best for
their children,” Boersen said to
reporters, when asked if parents
should be concerned about their
child missing out if they don’t take
part in the extended-hours
programming. “No child has to be
there from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m.
“But what it does is provide a
range of options for parents that
haven’t necessarily been available to
them in the past.”
Questions, however, remain.
“We haven’t been in the practiceof collecting money from the parentsfor programs,” Boersen remindedtrustees. “That information (abouthow that will happen) is still yet tocome from the Ministry.”
She said board administrators are
also wondering how to ensure a
smooth transition from existing
childcare services, especially
contracted-out versions, “so that we
don’t wipe out the livelihoods (ofprivate providers) in one fell swoop.”Potential border-crossing requestsare a concern, since the year-one andyear-two implementations will onlycover a few sites. And there are
questions around transportation:
parents will presumably be
responsible for getting their kids to
and from the extended-care
programming, but what if a school’s
increased daily attendance leads tothe need for extra busing?Recently, officials from bothschool boards attended the first of aseries of sessions with the EducationMinistry about the initiative.
Boersen said school board
administrators presented
approximately 150 questions.
“(Ministry officials) are fielding a lot
of questions and they’re doing a
good job,” she commented.
PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009.Questions emerging on all-day kindergarten
The success of two Avon Maitland
District School Board employees in
securing positions with the
Education Ministry has led to
changes at the top of administration
of a number of elementary schools.
“We just happened to have two of
our principals asked to take on other
roles,” commented education
superintendent Ted Doherty, in a
recent interview. “It’s great for them,
and not so great for us.”
Effective Oct. 13, Cheryl Peach
moved from her position as principal
of Seaforth Public School to take on
lead responsibilities in
environmental education for this
region of the Education Ministry.
She was replaced by Christina
VanPoucke, who moved from her
role as vice-principal at Clinton
Public School.
And effective Dec. 1, Wayne
Brennan moved from his role within
the Avon Maitland board’s Seaforth
headquarters as a system principal
for the “School Effectiveness
Framework.” According to Doherty,
Brennan has worked in the past with
the Education Ministry’s Literacy
and Numeracy Secretariat, and his
new position will follow up on that
work.
Brennan is technically on “leave
of absence” from his Avon Maitland
position, and will decide over the
next few months whether or not to
accept the Ministry job for a longer
term.
Nonetheless, his work at the board
office must continue, and he has
been replaced by Hullett Central
Public School principal Joy
Antoniuk. This necessitated the
transfer of Shawn Allen from vice-
principal at Exeter Public School to
principal at Hullett.
The Ministry position taken by
Peach, meanwhile, is just for the
remainder of the 2009-10 school
year.
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