Deadline for that lottery is Thursday and would qualify a family for a spot in two all-day kindergarten classes at each one of Lakota’s four early childhood schools for $4,000, which is payable in 10 monthly payments.
The cost-neutral program could be expanded if the district were able to partner with the Boys & Girls Club of West Chester/Liberty, which recently opened in temporary quarters at 4845 Smith Road in West Chester Twp.
The proposed partnership would involve a shared facility, on the site of the former Union Elementary School at 8735 Cincinnati-Dayton Road. That building, currently leased by the Butler County Educational Service Center for Union Day School, may be empty next year. The proposed partnership calls for demolishing the building and constructing a new one on the same site, a facility the district and the club would share.
“The benefit is that it opens up space where they are now and we could offer all-day kindergarten as a tuition-based program to more parents who want it instead of having admission have to be lottery based,” said Randy Oppenheimer, spokesman for the school district. “Right now, those preschool classes for 3-to-5-year-olds are in the four early childhood schools and a lot of people aren’t aware of that, that we operate a preschool, too.
“We just don’t have enough room with those classrooms filled up to offer all day kindergarten to all parents who might be interested.”
Initial construction cost would be facilitated by the school district through long-term debt. The Boys & Girls Club would repay the district, through lease payments, for its share of the construction costs. The school district would fund its own share of the debt repayment from Permanent Improvement funds.
To discuss the potential construction of a new shared facility, and the possible creation in the Lakota Schools of an optional, tuition-based all-day kindergarten program for all students, the district is offering a series of public Community Conversation meetings. Those meetings are scheduled for 2 p.m. June 16 at Lakota Central Office, 5572 Princeton Road, Liberty Twp.; 2 p.m. June 17 at West Chester-Liberty Chamber Alliance, 8922 Beckett Road, West Chester Twp.; and 6:30 p.m. June 17, MidPointe Library West Chester, 9363 Centre Pointe Dr., West Chester Twp.
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