ALDIE, Va. — After years as the only public school district in the region not offering universal full-day kindergarten, Loudoun County has finally caught up.
“I’m starting the school year on the floor of a full-day kindergarten classroom, and I’m smiling,” said Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Eric Williams, as he greeted students arriving at the just-opened Goshen Post Elementary School.
When Williams arrived four years ago, only 11 percent of county students attended a full day of kindergarten. Williams said thanks to creative thinking by the School Board, 80 percent of students went for the full day by last year.
Thursday marked the first day 100 percent of students in Loudoun County “will get that much of a better start” than in years past, when students attended either a morning or afternoon kindergarten session.
“The biggest challenge, and what’s taken so long to get to 100 percent, is the amazing, rapid growth” in Loudoun County’s population, said Williams.
When the current crop of high school seniors started school in 2006, there were just 50,478 students in the school district. Now, the total is 83,000.
However, even on the first day of a new school in the quickly growing Dulles South neighborhood, not all kindergartners who live nearby will be able to go to Goshen Post.
A total of 10 kindergarten students out of 5,100 countywide — six at Goshen Post, three at Mountain View Elementary, and one at Catoctin Elementary — will have to be bused to nearby schools that have empty seats in kindergarten classrooms.
Even with the busing arrangement, Williams said he cannot guarantee that full-day kindergarten will last.
“It’s going to be tough in coming years; we’re not necessarily going to be able to maintain 100 percent because of the continued, rapid growth,” said Williams. “We’re going to have to give 110 percent every year, but we’ll have to reconsider every year whether we’re able to offer full-day kindergarten for all of our students.”
Williams said long-term enrollment projections are constantly changing, as neighborhoods continue to grow.
“Because we have to reassess enrollment projections each year, it’s hard to say that by ‘x date’ we’ll be out of the woods, and we’ll be able to maintain it from that day forward,” said Williams. “I hope to get to where we can make that statement in a few years, but we’re not there yet.”
