KAP cut from Seine River schools

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This article was published 06/03/2024 (431 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Parents of kindergarten students next school year will need to find childcare after Seine River School Division’s (SRSD) board in a split vote decided to end the Kids at Play (KAP) program.

More than a daycare, KAP was an extended day kindergarten program with trained early child educators using play-based learning. About 350 kindergarten students use KAP each year.

The program had been in limbo after a motion to end it was deferred since Jan. 9. Facing a $5-million-plus deficit that will require cuts and raising taxes, a majority of trustees passed a motion that said KAP will end at the end of this school year unless the province agrees to fund it 100 percent.

A suggestion by board Chair Wendy Bloomfield that SRSD keep the program but charge fees was not voted on at the Feb. 27 board meeting. Another suggestion that taxes be raised enough to cover KAP by Ward 1 trustee Gary Nelson was also not voted on. The estimated cost of keeping KAP was $850,000, the equivalent of a 0.35 hike in the mill rate according to secretary treasurer Amanda Senkowski.

Nelson said raising taxes after the previous provincial government restricted school boards from doing so was a “market adjustment.”

“From the day I first ran for school trustee, I said if you’re voting for me to lower your taxes, vote for somebody else. This is a program that’s valuable,” said Nelson.

All trustees and staff indicated taxes are going up whether KAP was kept or not.

A fee of $10 per day up to a maximum of $190 per month to cover KAP’s cost for the second half of this school year proposed in early November was rescinded after pushback from parents. Households making less than $50,000 could have gotten into KAP for free.

But with the province appointing an accountant to help SRSD get out of deficit in the next three years, things had to be cut.

“This financial fiasco is a result of past decisions everybody. Now we have to eat crow,” Ward 2 trustee Marinus Van Osch said to his fellow trustees.

He also said emails he received from parents asked him where they would find childcare without KAP. Van Osch said his family managed years ago when they needed to find daycare.

“Today’s parent will manage. They’ll find a way because that’s their responsibility,” said Van Osch, adding it was “hypocritical” to only look at cutting teaching positions.

Bloomfield pointed out that kindergarten-aged children are not viewed the same at daycares, and parents often must pay for a full-time spot to ensure older kids get in despite only going part-time.

With the board not adding an extra .35 tax hike in the mill rate for KAP, cutting the program means eight fewer teacher positions need to be cut to cover the cost.

A proposed budget to be presented at a public meeting March 5 at 6 p.m. in the Ecole Lorette Immersion gym was planned to have 333 full-time teaching positions for SRSD’s 4,400 students.

How much KAP helped alleviate poor student evaluation results presented to the board earlier in the evening is not known.

A presentation on kindergarten assessments from last school year by assistant superintendent of student services Teresa Hampton showed the division’s youngest students behind in the provincial baseline in four of five areas.

“You’ll see that the language and cognitive development are significantly below, and those areas are around literacy and basic concepts,” explained Hampton during her presentation.

Seine River kindergarten students were only ahead in emotional maturity.

Superintendent Dr. Ryan Anderson said at the meeting options other than KAP including working with outside childcare providers and moving to full-day kindergarten every other day were discussed in the finance and operations committee, but staff said that would take time to investigate.