KINDERGARTEN BOUND: ALL-DAY PROGRAMS ON RISE IN REGION

Dylan Jacobs already knows his letters and numbers, so kindergarten should be a breeze for him. "I know 10,000 things already," he said.

Dylan will attend all-day kindergarten classes in Cape Girardeau this fall. It is the first time the Cape Girardeau School District has offered an all-day program.

"I start in 15 days," Dylan said Friday. "I've never been but I'm excited. My mom took me to see it and it's huge." Dylan will attend Washington Elementary School.

Students in Cape Girardeau and New Hamburg schools will join the majority of Missouri's kindergarteners when they attend a full day of classes later this month.

Typically, kindergarten students have attended half-day sessions in Missouri. Some districts like Chaffee, Scott City and Oran still offer half-day sessions.

Although kindergarten is an optional program in Missouri, more than 49 percent of the state's 68,500 kindergarten students attended an all-day program in the 1995-96 school year.

Students at Oak Ridge, Kelly at Benton, Sikeston, Leopold, Zalma, Woodland at Marble Hill, Meadow Heights at Patton, Perryville and Altenburg elementary schools, and Immaculate Conception and St. Mary's Catholic schools attend full-day kindergarten programs.

Nell Holcomb and Jackson schools hope to implement the program soon.

If students can do well during a half-day program, they should do twice as well in an all-day program, said Woodland schools superintendent Ron Wene.

Woodland has had an all-day kindergarten program for more than 11 years. "It's not a new thing like a lot are lately," Wene said.

The program actually began out of necessity. Since most of the students live in rural areas outside Marble Hill, a bus ride home could have been an hour long. With an all-day program, students don't have long rides and the district doesn't spend money on mid-day transportation.

In Cape Girardeau, eliminating long bus routes weren't the motivation for all-day kindergarten. But transportation costs for the district could be reduced since fewer buses will run.

The district has always wanted to have an all-day program, but had limited space and a tight budget. Other than initial costs for tables and chairs, the all-day program won't add any strain to the school budget.

"After Senate Bill 380 passed, it actually encouraged districts to consider all-day programs," said Dr. Richard Bollwerk, assistant superintendent for the Cape Girardeau School District.

The Senate bill provided state funding for the all-day programs so districts didn't have to pay from their local budget. After the bill passed, the number of districts with all-day kindergarten increased by about 43 percent. Almost 390 of the state's 523 school districts have an all-day program.

"Our philosophy is to take it slow at the start of the year," Bollwerk said. "We want to be sure all children feel comfortable."

The children will have a set schedule for rest, play and learning activities. After the first few weeks of the semester, the rest and play times will dwindle so that teachers can focus more on education.

"We don't want to overwhelm them with activities and academics," Bollwerk said. "It's more of an adjustment for the teachers."

Many children are already adjusted to a routine, organized environment by the time they reach kindergarten-age, said Lisa Gibbar, a teacher at the St. Mary's Early Education Center.

Students typically have structured activities in the morning at the center, which has a pre-kindergarten class to prepare the children for school. The class teaches basic things like alphabet and number recognition that are needed in kindergarten.

The children already know things like raising your hand to get the teacher's attention, standing in straight, quiet lines and taking turns, Gibbar said.

"We teach all the things that used to be taught in kindergarten," she said, adding that the curriculum was designed in conjunction with St. Mary's Catholic School, which offers an all-day program.

Public schools also have a specific kindergarten curriculum, but fitting everything into a three-hour block is tough.

Until last year, the Cape Girardeau district offered an extended day kindergarten to help students who had problems adjusting socially or academically. The program was offered at Franklin and May Greene elementary schools.

The extended day session was federally funded under the Title 1 program, but the federal budget was cut this year. The extended program was replaced with an all-day program in Cape Girardeau.

Whether it is a half-day or full-day program, the first day of kindergarten is traumatic.

"They're excited, but it's scary for them to leave," Gibbar said. "They still need to be mothered and hugged and they won't always get that."