Dear WW-P Community,
It is with great pleasure that I announce that starting with the 2023-2024 school year, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District will transition to a full-day kindergarten program for all of our kindergarten students.
At the March 14, 2023 Board of Education meeting, the tentative budget for the 2023-2024 school year was presented. Included in this tentative budget is the implementation of a Districtwide full-day kindergarten program. While our half-day program has provided an excellent learning and growth experience for our current students, we are excited to provide a full-day program for our future kindergarten students. Meeting the state standards for kindergarten has become increasingly challenging within a half-day program. The implementation of a full day kindergarten will provide your students with additional instructional time, supervised playtime, center time, additional specials, lunch and recess.
The request to move to full-day kindergarten has been a long-standing request of our district families. With the recognition that, due to the pandemic, our youngest learners have missed out on many socialization experiences and educational opportunities, the District began studying the possibility of implementing a full day program earlier this year. With decreased enrollment in our elementary schools, the District has the opportunity to provide the expansion of our kindergarten program beginning next school year (2023-2024 school year). The District has enough classrooms with bathrooms to accommodate the estimated number of kindergarten students that are anticipated by offering a full-day program. The implementation of full-day kindergarten will come with no additional tax burden and will be accomplished within the 2023 - 2024 budget.
With this exciting announcement comes much work. In the coming weeks, I will be meeting with our building and district administration to discuss topics such as building use, elementary scheduling, staffing, transportation, food services, EDP care and more as it relates to our kindergarten students. In addition, our curriculum & instruction department, administrators, and current kindergarten teachers will be meeting to discuss the sequence and pacing of our kindergarten curriculum.
The complete tentative budget presentation can be viewed here and the Board meeting video presentation can be viewed here. In addition, a short FAQ document has been created to answer some of the most pressing questions that community members may have regarding the implementation of a full-day kindergarten program. To view the document, please click here.
Kindergarten registration for the 2023-24 school year is currently open. For additional information and to begin the registration process, please visit the District website. For families who have already registered for the half-day kindergarten program for the 2023-24 school year, your registration will automatically be converted to a full-day program. No additional action is required for those who have already registered.
Sincerely,
David Aderhold, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools