Lower Merion approves full-day kindergarten for 2024-2025 school year

LOWER MERION — After years of parents asking for it, Lower Merion School District officials have approved a plan for full-day kindergarten.

But, school district officials say that full-time kindergarten will come at a cost.

During its December board meeting, the Lower Merion Board of School Directors voted for the district to move forward with the full-day kindergarten beginning in the fall of 2024.

Before the board’s vote, Superintendent Steven Yanni outlined some of the issues connected with the district’s change to full-day kindergarten.

Among the changes Yanni mentioned was the need for increased revenue from taxpayers.

“There is no way to bring in full-day kindergarten and the number of staff we need to bring without that tax increase,” Yanni said.

Yanni said they are projecting an approximately $400 tax increase for a medium-valued home to pay for the full-day kindergarten.

One thing that is expected to stay the same, according to Yanni, is class size.

“We may see an additional student or two in classrooms, and that’s going to allow us to naturally create capacity to reroute positions to full-day kindergarten,” Yanni said.

Yanni said all the new kindergarten positions will not be new, so they plan on surveying staff to find out staff preferences.

“We want to make sure that we pair people with the grade level that they are best suited to teach so that our students get the best experience as possible,” Yanni said.

One group of employees that will also be affected by the change over to full-day kindergarten is the bus drivers.

“That employee group is going to be tremendously affected, and so we’ve had some initial conversations, and we’ll continue having conversations at the personal level about how to minimize those implications,” Yanni said.

Due to space issues at some buildings, district officials say they will have to use partner schools.

“This is not new information. “Merion Elementary does not have space for full-day kindergarten, so in January, when communication comes out of the district, part of that communication will be the plan for partner schooling,” Yanni said.

According to information provided at a school board meeting earlier this year, three of the district elementary schools, Belmont Hills, Gladwyne, and Penn Valley, have enough space and will not require any modification for full-day kindergarten.

Cynwyd Elementary has enough space, but would require a facilities upgrade.

Merion and Penn Wynne would require facility modifications.

Another thing they plan to put out information on will be the registration of new students, which opens in January.

According to Yanni, the district plans to communicate more details about the full-day kindergarten in January.