I would like to thank the School Board Members for their efforts this year in meeting the goals established at the beginning of this school year. I would  also like to thank the Pastoral Council for their support and guidance this year.

Full Day Kindergarten and Capital Planning Strategies

 The State of Maryland is requiring Full Day Kindergarten starting in the Fall of 2007. Some pilot schools in Carroll County will be starting earlier. At the May 2005 School Board Meeting, the Full Day Kindergarten planning report was discussed along with a Capital Planning Strategies document. Several members of the Parish Development leadership (Colleen Hattrup, Ralph Arnold, and Paul Rock) were able to attend and share their insights with the School Board. Ten alternatives were developed as part of the Full Day Kindergarten planning. Some additional alternatives were brought up during the meeting. It was determined that one alternative (the elimination of the kindergarten program) be removed from consideration.  There was also some negative feedback related to the use of portable classrooms.

The next steps for Full Day Kindergarten planning include:

 1.      Conducting a high level architectural review of our alternatives to better understand the potential costs and code impact on the current school building for each of the alternatives. We would like to request that this be executed and coordinated through Terry Jones.

2.      Sharing the plan alternatives with parents to solicit their feedback. We plan to work through the PTF for this survey and feedback.

3.      Revisiting the Full Day Kindergarten plan at the October 2005 Board meeting after feedback from #1 and #2 above is collected and after additional discussion and feedback is obtained through Back to School Night in September.

If there are any questions or clarifications on this report, please contact me at 410-840-3001 or Tom.Witmer@MistyMeadowHoldings.com.

Respectfully Submitted,

Tom Witmer

President

St. John School Board