Superintendent Says Full-Day Kindergarten Study Seen By Early Spring

The Board of Education is expecting a report from a demographer by early spring to make a decision about full-day kindergarten for Brick, Superintendent Dr. Walter Uszenski said on Friday.

"We know the research says it is great to start kids at an earlier age and we are looking at the possibility in September," Uszenski said about full-day kindergarten.

"We are hoping the demographer report will be availabe by early spring and we can make educated decisions about what we can and can’t do," Uszenski said. The main factors driving this will be financial costs and classroom space availability, he said.

The report would only serve to help make recommendations to the school board, examine all the options and get the community's input, he said.

Brick presently has 25 half-day kindergarten classes now, Uszenski said.

In March, 

Patch.com reported, the district would have to hire 14 new teachers, plus a part-time teacher at a cost of $983,000 in salaries and benefits, when calculating the new hires according to current union contracts. A total of 32 teachers would be needed in order to have enough staff to adhere to state rules on class sizes – essentially, 21 students per class.