The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District administration continues recommending all-day kindergarten starting in the 2025-2026 school year. School Board directors will be voting on that and the next school budget next Monday.
Director of Curriculum and Instruction Michael Audevard reviewed the results of a survey the district ran from May 16 to May 20 in which 88 percent of the 554 respondents said they were in favor of all-day kindergarten, while 10 percent were not in favor. Audevard’s comments came during the School Board’s June 12 work session.
Audevard said those who don’t want the change expressed concerns over how it will affect school taxes and a preference for the half-day. The difference was 50/50, with half concerned about taxes and the other half simply favoring half-days. He added that some of the respondents in favor of all-day K wanted it to start sooner than 2025, while some said they want it to start later.
The remaining 2 percent expressed concerns about the pre-first program, he said but that the percentage was too small to draw conclusions and the responses did not address the question asked.
“I don’t want that small percentage to indicate how much the community is thinking about pre-first,” he said. “But the overall major takeaway was that the vast majority of respondents are in favor of the full-day kindergarten program.”
Audevard continued, saying the pre-first program would remain but only at Unionville Elementary School for space reasons. The other schools don’t have enough room. Additionally, the district would be re-evaluating the pre-first program for the 2027-28 school year.
The cost to implement all-day K is estimated at $2.08 million, Audevard said, with just less than $1.5 million for staffing.
School Board directors are scheduled to vote on the proposal next week during the regular meeting. Also scheduled for a vote at the June 19 meeting is the 2023-2024 academic year budget.
The current budget proposal calls for $100.9 million in appropriations with a millage rate of 31.95 mils in property taxes for properties in Chester County municipalities in the district, and 16.72 mils for properties in Chadds Ford Township, the lone Delaware County municipality in the district. (A mil is a tax of $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.)
Director of Finance Joe Deady said the 31.95 mils in Chester County is a 3.97 percent increase over this past year, and the Delaware County rate is a 4.63 percent increase. The weighted average increase is 4.1 percent.
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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