District Determining CAP Program Schools

The district is determining which schools will host its full-day Children at Play program when it begins in September.

“At this point, I’m happy to report out that we have been collecting checks from families who are interested in our Children At Play program,” Assistant Superintendent for Personnel Scott Rocco said at the June 20 Board of Education meeting. “We have determined that we will be running the program at Amsterdam School and we will not be running the program at Woodfern School.”

The district is still deciding which schools will house the other programs, Rocco added.

“It looks like Hillsborough Elementary and Woods Road may be inviting parents from Sunnymead and Triangle to participate in the program at those schools,” he said. “But the Amsterdam program can run as-is.”

Lotteries for slots in the district’s full-day Children at Play (CAP) learning program were not necessary since no schools received more the program’s 22 student limit.

Scheduled for May 20, the lottery drawing would have determined which students would fill the 22 slots allotted to each school. Students who did not receive a slot in the school would be placed on a waiting list according to when their name was drawn from the lottery.

“We did not run the lottery drawing since there was no need to do so,” Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum Lisa Antunes said in an email. “There is no waiting list for any of the schools because the maximum number of students was not reached. As new students register and interest in the program grows, if necessary, we will begin a waiting list once the maximum number of 22 students is reached in each school.”

The program’s anticipated running cost $57,014 per section and would include teacher salaries, estimated at $27,500, health benefits at $13,000, supplies at $1,000, paying lunch aides, a cost of $2,464 for the 50-minute period, and transportation costs, estimated at $13,050. The estimates include the addition of extra bus routes, though district officials noted enrollment would determine whether addition routes are needed.

Curriculum writing for the program will occur during the summer and is expected to go to the Board of Education for approval prior to September, Antunes said.

Preparing the schools for the program is not expected to take long, she added. The CAP classes will be housed in existing classrooms in each elementary school, though some schools will use kindergarten classrooms and others will use classrooms nearby.

“There really is very little preparation that needs to take place,” Antunes said. “The classrooms are available and any necessary additional furniture or supplies will be purchased this summer as well.”