Schools
Holliston Hears Plan for Tuition-Free Full-Day Kindergarten for Next School Year
Town officials discussed the educational and financial benefits to going to a tuition-free full-day program for all Holliston Kindergarten students.
Last week, a case was made before the Holliston School Committee, Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee for a tuition-free full-day Kindergarten program in the town of Holliston for the 2014-2015 school year.
In a 36-page presentation (available on the district's website), town officials learned:
111 students are enrolled in full-day Kindergarten and pay $3,475 per student for a total of $350,106 each year.
85 students are enrolled in the half-day Kindergarten program.
94% of districts in Massachusetts offer full-day Kindergarten; 75% of them at no charge.
The state's language frameworks were changed in 2011 and there is now a long list of Kindergarten benchmarks compared to the previous (2001) requirement that a child be able to "print upper- and lower-case letters of the alphabet" after finishing Kindergarten.
The full report is available HERE but a summary of the report states:
- Curriculum changes are driving this proposal.
- Holliston parents are ready for this change.
- This proposal is a good investment paid for by the state in FY16 and beyond:
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