Stratford takes no action on 4K proposal

By Casey Krautkramer

The Stratford Board of Education last Wednesday held a lengthy discussion on whether to allow parents of four-year-old kindergartners next school year the option of sending their children to school either three or five days each week. Four-yearold kindergarteners currently attend school two days one week and three days the next week.

School board vice president Jeannie Tichy made a motion to approve superintendent Dr. Nathan Lehman’s recommendation for the new options for four-year-old kindergarten next school year, but it didn’t receive a second motion and thus failed before school board members could take a vote.

School districts only receive partial state funding for part-time 4K programs.

This is the first school year that the Edgar School District is offering parents the option of having their 4K children attend school either three or five days each week. Edgar didn’t need to hire an additional 4K teacher for this school year because of its small class size.

The Athens and Marathon school districts only offer a part time 4K program, just

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like Stratford. The Athens School District’s Maple Grove Charter School in Hamburg doesn’t have a 4K program; it only has kindergarten through fifth grades.

Athens School District has its first group of 4K children attend school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the first half of the school year while a second group of 4K children attends school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. During the second half of the school year, the first group of 4K students attend school on Mondays and Wednesdays while the second group of 4K students attend school on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Marathon School District’s 4K program consists of children attending school two days a week in the classroom while Fridays are for parent connections. Marathon School District superintendent Rick Parks said for state aid purposes, 4K students are counted as 0.5 or 0.6 FTE (full time equivalent) depending on the services schools provide.

“Under state law, 4K programs must offer at least 437 hours of direct pupil instruction,” Parks said. “Outreach activities totaling 87.5 hours, such as child-parent activities, home visits or parent education, must be a part of the scheduled course for the 0.5 FTE student count or in addition to the 437 hours for the 0.6 FTE count.”

Stratford School Board president Chris Dickinson said at last Wednesday’s meeting that one of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) resolutions at its conference in Milwaukee this week is to ask the state to increase funding to schools who have full time 4K students.

Dr. Lehman and Stratford Elementary School principal Amy Schmitt had a discussion this school year about providing more consistency for the 4K children by allowing their parents to send them to school five days each week instead of two days one week and three days the next week. They agreed that parents also have the challenge of finding daycare for their children every other day during the school week. Schmitt surveyed parents listed on the U.S. Census who’ll have children attending 4K at Stratford Elementary School next school year, and the majority of them indicated they wanted to have the option of sending their children to school five days per week.

Schmitt said at last Wednesday’s school board meeting that, if 4K children attended school five days per week next school year, teachers would introduce the lessons on the three days when all the students are in school. She said teachers would have the 4K students who are at school the extra two days review and practice the lessons they were taught.

Melanie Nikolai and Jodi Wenzel are the current Stratford 4K teachers. Dr. Lehman said the school district would’ve likely needed to hire a third 4K teacher if the school board decided to offer 4K five days per week.

Dickinson provided statistics he found on other Marawood Conference school districts’ 4K student enrollment numbers, noting that offering 4K five days per week doesn’t necessarily correlate to a higher number of students in the 4K program. He said Chequamegon School District started its full-time 4K program in 2015 and its 4K student enrollment has remained flat over the years. He said Prentice School District began its full time 4K program in 2018 and its 4K student enrollment is on a downward trend.

Other business

n The board agreed to no longer livestream its regular meetings on the school district’s YouTube channel and will instead have them taped and placed on the school district’s YouTube channel the day after the meeting, which will allow the public 30 days to watch them before they are erased when the next month’s meeting tape is downloaded.

District resident Shelly Weis spoke during last Wednesday’s meeting about the importance of the school board continuing to livestream its meetings to be transparent with the public. School board member Tyler Skaya said he believes taping the meetings is a good compromise.

n The district has open enrollment space for three regular education students at Stratford Elementary School and two students each at Stratford middle and high schools for the 2024-25 school year. The open enrollment application period is from Feb. 5 through April 30.

n The next Stratford School Board meeting is at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 21, in the high school band room.