By Winslow Durgin,Special to the Sun Journal

MINOT – The School Committee on Tuesday night approved a plan for all-day kindergarten at the Minot Consolidated School for this year only.

Making her case, Principal Margaret Pitts said that her survey of parents of the incoming kindergartners showed overwhelming support for the move.

Pitts, who came to Minot a year ago, said that her six years of administrative experience in a school that, for the first two years, had had half-day kindergarten and, for the last four years, had had full-day kindergarten had convinced her that the all-day kindergarten was by far the preferred option.

Pitts also noted that, with only 20 registered for this year’s kindergarten, a change could be implemented without additional cost.

Ann Hobart, Minot’s kindergarten teacher, noted that expectations for what a child should know at the completion of kindergarten have increased under the state’s Learning Results program and, as a consequence, she had to alter her program last year.

“I felt pressured last year to meet state standards, but (kindergartners) have to have time to be children. Play has been taken from the kindergarten and, in play, they learn how to get along in the world,” Hobart said.

She also pointed out that Mechanic Falls and Poland, member towns with Minot in School Union 29, already have all-day kindergarten.

Mary Martin, principal at Mechanic Falls’ Elm Street School, said her school had instituted the all-day kindergarten a year ago, and she was extremely pleased with the results.

“It gave them more time to socialize. They never had a recess before. On the end-of-year assessment, they were stronger (academically) than before; they did better,” Martin said.

School Committee member Lisa Sabatine pointed out that this year’s incoming kindergarten class of 20 is unusually low and expressed reservations with committing to a program that could require additional staff once numbers rebounded to average.

In giving unanimous support to Pitts’ proposal, committee members made it clear that this was to be a pilot program and their approval was given for the 2005-2006 school year only.

In other business, Union 29 operations director Gordon Murray told the committee that the school is now being served by water from the town garage well and that the water bottles that have been in the classrooms for the past year and a half have all been sent back to Poland Spring.

Responding to questions on fuel costs for the coming year, Murray said he expects to hear bid results within a few days. He said he will present a plan to deal with the expected increase in cost at the School Committee’s September meeting. The committee also approved hiring Lynn Gutstein-Persky to serve as the school’s speech and language clinician, working four mornings a week.

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