Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Importance of Kindergarten registration

As a follow-up to the announcement here yesterday on the Kindergarten registration scheduled for next week, I received this letter from a Franklin parent:
I was at my school's PCC meeting and one piece of information that I did not realize was that the registration for Kindergarten in February helps determine the staffing of the Kindergarten teachers for the next year. Even if a parent is not sure if the child is going to the public school they should register them in February and then if they change their mind let the school know. From my understanding what happened last year is many students were not enrolled by their parents until July so it brought the counts in the class to 25 students.

It would be helpful for parents just starting the school process to understand why they need to register their child in February even if they are not 100% sure that is where they are going to get a better grasp of staffing needed for the next school year. Of course a class might still be this large if they cut kindergarten teachers in the budget but the forecast of how many teachers are needed is not truly shown in the February registration statistics if we have such a large number of parents registering in July.
It was also discussed at the School Committee meeting Tuesday evening that full-day kindergarten is desired, expected, a goal but is not guaranteed at this time due to the uncertainties in the budget.

Stay tuned for updates on the budget as the situation develops over the next couple of months.

Let me restate what I wrote earlier this week (bold added for emphasis):
In summary, the next several months can be very interactive. Franklin citizens can provide their input to the charter, the downtown project, and ultimately the Franklin budget. If you were waiting for a good time to get involved, the time is now.
Kindergarten registration information can be found here
http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/2010/01/franklin-ma-kindergarten-registration.html

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