UCF hung up on ‘all day K’

The Unionville- Chadds Ford School District Board of Directors is hung up on the idea of all-day kindergarten. And the idea put a snag in the board’s May 1 budget hearing.

Members reviewed the proposed final budget for the 2023-2024 school year. It calls for revenues of $101,154,717 and with expenditures estimated at $101,402,107.

Superintendent John Sanville said that $247,390 deficit can be made up using some of the unrestricted fund balance.

Taxes are projected to go up to 32.21 mils in Chester County — up 4.82 percent — and 16.86 mills in Chadds Ford — up 5.51 percent. The difference in rates is due to how the two counties assess property. (A mil is a tax of $1 for every $1,000 in assessed value.)

Director of Finance Joseph Deady handled most of the budget presentation and he said much of the increase in expenditures reflects inflation that has increased costs in health benefits, fuel and electrical costs.

But a large portion of Monday night’s discussion pertained to all-day kindergarten and when that would start because that start date could have an impact on this year’s tax rate. According to Deady’s presentation, if full-day kindergarten begins with the 2026-2027 school year, there will be no changes to the proposed budget. However, if it starts in the 2025-2026 academic year, another $419,000 will be added to the proposal.

The conversation began with a question to Deady from Director Robert Sage who reflected uncertainty about the possible changes for kindergarten.

“What are we going to be voting on in two weeks?” he asked.

Sanville responded by saying, “That’s a good question, but it’s awkward because it’s such a driver of this budget. What we’re going to recommend is full-day K for 2025-2026.”

Sage pressed for more specificity: “So, that’s the recommendation but the budget is going to recommend what?”

Sanville said the recommendation would be for starting all-day K in '25-'26, which would require the extra $419,000 into the budget plans now, resulting in a weighted tax increase of 5.51 percent among the two counties.

Director Jeff Hellrung was also uncertain.

“I thought we were expecting the administration if they were going to recommend going forward with this, that it would be ’26-'27 or ‘27-‘28. Is that changing now?

Sanville said that the start options were '25-'26, or '27-'28 based on facilities needed.

Director Erin Talbert wanted to know why the administration would want to include the extra $419,000 into the upcoming year’s budget if the all-day K would not start for another two years.

The actual staffing cost for the proposed all-day kindergarten is $1.46 million annually, but there’s also a $620,000 one-time set-up cost. Deady explained that putting the $419,000 into the upcoming budget prevents all of the increase from being put into a future budget all at once.

Again, Hellrung said he was confused. He said he understood the budget under consideration is for the upcoming school year and assumes the new kindergarten would start in 2026, with the tax increase based on that date.

“But we’re hearing now from the administration that you’re planning to recommend ’25-'26?”

Sanville responded saying, “Correct.”

Hellrung followed up with “I hope the majority of the board is not going to be in favor of that. The time has come for full-day K but I think we need to go into it gradually, conservatively.”

Another director, Elise Anderson, said she hasn’t decided — “landed” — on it yet and questioned how many people understand the impact all-day K has on the budget.

Director Jen Brown also said she had some confusion regarding the proposed start date and wished that had already been decided.

“It wasn’t necessarily definitive. It would have been a better use of our time if we had done it [decided on when to go to all-day K] before,” Brown said.

Director Steve Simonson agreed saying it would have been better to have the conversation and have a decision on kindergarten before the budget hearing.

Hellrung again interjected that while it’s time for all-day K, it shouldn’t be rushed and “not to spend another $419,000 to pull it in a year early.”

As the conversation continued, Sanville said “We can’t tax enough in one year to cover what the cost would be for kindergarten. If you want to do kindergarten, you have to build the budget up over two to three years.”

Sanville said the administration will get a recommendation to the board next week about all-day kindergarten with options about when to begin, during the 2025-2026 school year or in ’26-’27.

Talbert said it would be important for members of the community to hear that discussion since the board members haven’t reached a decision yet.

“If we can allow that to take its course so that members of the community can actually tune into that meeting when they want to hear that discussion versus reading what we’re thinking about full-day K because we haven’t landed on it or voted on it.”

In addition to a presentation on all-day kindergarten options on May 8, the board is expected to vote on May 15 on whether to make the proposed final the actual final budget, then vote on that during the June 19 meeting.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.

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