Published: May 15, 2009 11:26 pm      

Southeastern cuts all-day kindergarten

If funding becomes available, it could return by end of summer

With no funds guaranteed to support all-day kindergarten, members of the Southeastern School Board cut the program for the 2009-10 school year.

The lack of a state budget and the fact that Cass County’s property assessment yet to be approved, Superintendent John Bevan said the decision was all about money.

“At this point, it would be my hope that during the summer, the financial situation becomes more clear,” he said. “I think it is a very valuable thing and we’re going to do everything we can to restore it.”

The help it provides to children makes it tough to cut, he said.

“There is no question that it helps the kids,” Bevan said.

All-day kindergarten is offered at Galveston and Thompson elementary schools.

The board also heard a report on the corporation’s building projects. Work has already begun at the elementary schools.

“It’s going really well. We’re getting off to a good head start,” Bevan said. “Technically, we weren’t going to start until school was out. Anything we can get done before that puts us ahead.

“We’ve already made good progress at Thompson and Galveston. The high school, we can’t do much until school is out.”

The corporation also had an infrared inspection conducted of the roofs at Galveston and Lewis Cass. The scans were used to find areas if moisture had gotten under the filament and to identify pinholes and cracks.

“They were found to be in good shape for their age. We Identified a few places where there were cracks or holes in the membrane and we’ve already authorized them to fix those,” Bevan said.

“With the building project, we were looking to shape up all the buildings at one point. The roofs were one area where we hadn’t done anything.”

The board awarded Central Paving of Logansport the contract to resurface parking lots at all three schools for $425,363. R&S Prairie Farms will provide milk for the 2009-10 school year while Aunt Millie’s Bakery will provide bread.

• John Dempsey is the associate editor of the Pharos-Tribune. He may be contacted at (574) 732-5150 or by e-mail at john.dempsey@pharostribune.com