Full-day kindergarten in the Warren County School District may have just lost half its financial backing next year.
But it's too early to tell what that may mean for kindergarten students next year, said Superintendent Brandon Hufnagel on Tuesday, hours after Gov. Tom Corbett proposed to eliminate $100 million in accountability grants. The state money is used by public schools to partially fund full-day kindergarten.
"It's way too early in the process to tell," Hufnagel said of what the loss of the accountability grant would mean to the school district. "It was proposed to be cut last year and they ended up keeping it."
For the current school year, the school district received $498,547 in accountability grants, which Hufnagel said supports half of the full-day kindergarten program. The 2012-13 proposed school budget held the line with state funding for the program, but without it, the school district would need to find alternative revenue sources.
"If we want to find a way to support full-day kindergarten, we have to find a way to fund it," Hufnagel said, emphasizing that the loss of the grant does not mean kindergarten would be eliminated. "By no means is that the case. We have to find a funding stream."
The governor's $27.1 billion budget proposal which would mirror the 2011-12 budget would take effect July 1 if approved by state Legislatures.
The superintendent said the school district's board of directors will hear a presentation on full-day kindergarten and its importance to early learning. That meeting, he said, was already planned and with a potential loss in funding, the presentation becomes "much more important."
Hufnagel added that money to fund kindergarten may come in the form of additional education funding, which Gov. Corbett announced may increase for Pennsylvania schools. That too, Hufnagel said, is too early to tell.
"We're just trying to plan something that we're guessing on," he said, noting that public schools are required to submit preliminary and finals budgets before the state. "Everything is very backwards and we're having to make decisions based on assumptions."
He added, "We're making guesses that could change and these are questions that cannot be made overnight."