MEDWAY - The school district has taken a step toward offering tuition-free, full-day kindergarten to the town's children.
Superintendent Armand Pires announced Thursday that he would recommend such a program in the draft budget he will be presenting to the School Committee. The statement, made at the committee meeting, drew applause from the audience.
Though this has long been a priority for the district, Pires said, available funding has been a barrier.
"The tuition's paid so students can participate in the full-day kindergarten program offset significantly the cost of the program itself," he said. "As we think about the fiscal implications of moving to tuition-free.. it's a significant investment."
The cost of the change would be about $380,000 next year, but that price will increase as time goes on, Pires said. Under normal circumstances, the district could afford the first year, but the program would become unsustainable.
What has made the conversation possible, according to Pires, is an increase in the payment in lieu of taxes to the town associated with the Exelon power plant expansion. The selectmen plan to allocate $500,000 of the increase to the schools, providing a chance to re-examine the change.
"It's very clear that now is the time," Pires said. "The School Committee has talked about this as a priority; when our leadership team gets together to talk about priorities, every one of them identified full-day kindergarten; and parents have been incredibly vocal about this."
Committee members praised members of the public for making their voice heard about the matter.
"We got to see members of the community come forward with their passion, and it matched the passion we felt as a district," said committee member Susan Dietrich.
Fellow member Cynthia Sullivan said she felt all the district's students should have the same experience in the classroom.
Pires said administration officials were still drafting the budget. He will be presenting a version to the committee on Feb. 15, and will be taking feedback and guidance from them then. A budget forum with the public has been scheduled for March 1, to be followed by a hearing on March 15 - a session at which the committee will vote on the document.
Mike Gleason can be reached at 508-634-7546 or mgleason@wickedlocal.com. For news throughout the day, follow him on Twitter @MGleason_MDN.