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Full Day Kindergarten builds strong foundations.
Full Day Kindergarten is important to future generations of students, as well as the future of the Westfield school district and the Westfield community.
Better outcomes at that foundational stage can pay off later with outstanding academic performance.
Continued robust home sales could depend on how Westfield stacks up next to the educational services offered in neighboring towns.
In fact, the vast majority of school districts in New Jersey have already found ways to implement Full Day Kindergarten not because the state requires it, but because it is better for their students and their communities.
Space for Full Day Kindergarten was the focus of Bond Question 2 on the April 15 ballot. Bond Question 1 and Question 2 were independent; one could pass without the other. Based on preliminary results, Westfield voters approved both bond proposals.
Why is a full day better?
State learning standards have increased at all grade levels, including kindergarten. That used to be when a student’s day was largely play-based and focused on emergent skills like writing letters and sounding out words. Now most write multi-page stories and read books within a few months of starting kindergarten. Over the past two decades, state academic requirements have steadily increased for these early learners.
More academic demands squeeze out exploratory play and other unstructured time that is so important for lifelong socialization skills. A full day program would boost playground time from 6 minutes per day to 30 minutes per day.
Half day programs like Westfield’s leave students with more than 180 fewer hours each year for reading, writing and other building-block skills. With a full day program, math would gain 32 instructional hours per year and Language Arts would gain 95 hours per year. Time earmarked for science and social studies would more than double.
All kindergartners learn at the Lincoln Early Childhood Learning Center, so Westfield’s commitment to neighborhood schools cannot start until first grade.
With voter approval:
WPS would be on track toward Full Day Kindergarten across the district, estimated to begin in the 2028-29 school year. Funding for additional staffing would be part of a future District Operating Budget process that would require voter approval. (See FAQs)
WPS would consider and finalize plans for Lincoln classrooms that would be newly available, such as developing appropriate space for art, music, library and support services, and/or expanding pre-kindergarten programs.
How much space is needed?
Without more classrooms, WPS cannot expand to Full Day Kindergarten. The plan calls for additions at five elementary schools, there is no room for a building addition at Wilson Elementary School. Expanding to Full Day Kindergarten at Wilson would be achieved by relocating special education programs to Washington Elementary School. Our plan includes new classrooms designed and built for individualized learning.
Not all the proposed new space would be used for kindergarten classes.
Already our elementary schools are pressed for teaching space. Increased demand means more individualized instruction takes place in former closets, offices and hallway nooks. The need for small-group rooms is factored into the proposal.
WPS has made great strides in developing in-district services for students who have special learning needs. When in-district programs are in classrooms that are appropriately sized and equipped, students are more likely to stay in Westfield schools with their peers.
Professionals that make up the Child Study Team (CST) would be closer to the students and families they serve if space was available in the schools. The proposal calls for decentralizing some CST professionals from the district’s administrative office to individual schools.
Westfield's half day kindergarten program is becoming more rare.
Foundational programming is such a strong expectation that of nearly 600 public school districts in New Jersey, only seven do not have full day, free-for-all kindergarten or a funded plan to start it (Moorestown, Cranford, Hillsborough Township, the Chathams, Monroe, Millstone Township and Westfield).
Westfield is in that minority, and the minority is shrinking.
In Moorestown, the district is planning a fall 2025 bond referendum to provide space for Full Day Kindergarten and small-group instruction, with additional projects related to improved HVAC systems and flexible learning spaces.
In Cranford, voters in January 2024 approved a bond referendum to build space for Full Day Kindergarten. The community will vote this November on a proposal for operating costs; approval would put Cranford on the path toward a full day program.
Districts of Hillsborough Township, the Chathams, Monroe Township and Millstone Township have either tried and failed to secure funding; have long-term plans to pursue it; or – in the case of Chatham – offer only a tuition-based Full Day Kindergarten but no half-day program.
In Haddonfield, 78% of voters in December 2024 approved a plan similar to Westfield’s. Haddonfield is now on a path to add elementary school space for Full Day Kindergarten and small-group instruction, with additional projects related to building maintenance, media centers and auditoriums.
Districts of Metuchen and Bridgewater-Raritan have a plan to expand to Full Day Kindergarten and funding approved for it.
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