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Spring Cove nixes K4 program

ROARING SPRING — The Spring Cove School Board voted 5-2 Tuesday to eliminate the district’s K4 program for 4-year-olds, ending the early education experiment after two years.

The program, which served as an early kindergarten equivalent for 4-year-olds, is set to end with this school year.

Board members said they hope to keep the program’s teachers employed at the district and use some of the saved funds to add secondary teachers in next year’s budget.

“I supported this thing from day one, but the bottom line is … there’s no money. We can’t find any money,” Board President Brian Gahagan said.

Conceived under former superintendent Robert Vadella and established in 2015, K4 served as a full-scale kindergarten for students younger than those typically taught in kindergarten classes.

Distinct from pre-kindergarten or preschool, supporters touted the program’s likely benefits for children years into the future.

Expected state funds and grants didn’t materialize, however, and the district has been left with bills far larger than administrators first expected. The cost was set to increase next year, Superintendent Betsy Baker said, when Spring Cove would have to take up financial responsibility for 4-year-old special-education students, as well.

The program cost the district about $350,000 this year, Baker said.

Board members on Tuesday praised the program and its teachers, with some suggesting blame lies in part with Vadella.

Mary Smith — who voted against eliminating the program — said she hopes the board will learn a lesson not to immediately approve expensive new suggestions.

“We can’t just blindly trust and say, ‘Yes, that’s what you want us to do, that’s what we’ll approve,'” she said.

Smith acknowledged the program’s problems and said she would have preferred the board not approve it when they did. But with K4 in place and dozens of students already educated, it’s a difficult investment to simply pull out of, she argued.

“It had a very rough start … but we haven’t really given it a chance,” she said.

The final vote was 5-2, with Smith and fellow member James Smith voting no. Members Amy Acker-Knisely and Jason Rhykerd were absent.

Member Troy Wright, who wasn’t yet on the board when K4 was first approved, hailed the K4 teachers but said Spring Cove needs to spend its money on teachers at other grade levels.

“If we had millions of dollars sitting in the bank, then absolutely,” he said. “The program’s great, but I don’t think it’s a priority.”

Baker and Gahagan said some of the saved money will likely be spent on much-needed teachers and curriculum at the secondary level. Little money will be saved in transportation, Baker said, as the K4 students rode on the same buses as older children.

Parents seeking pre-kindergarten options for their children will have alternatives, board members noted. Income-dependent, grant-funded programs like Pre-K Counts and Head Start will remain available — possibly with some expansion — but some parents will likely have to turn to paid, private preschools.

“A lot of the things that existed before are still open,” Baker said.

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