Kindergarten Classes Scaled Back to Cut Costs
Science courses for kindergartners will be eliminated and their art and music classes will be reduced under a budget proposal adopted Tuesday by the Irvine Unified School District.
The proposal was developed by a task force of educators, community members, the Irvine Music Coalition and the Irvine Public School Foundation.
School board member Karen Preston said the program, which offers 25 to 35 minutes of weekly instruction, is supposed to be covered by donations from the school foundation. But the program’s cost will increase by $225,000, mainly because of teacher salary increases, she said. “The cost of our [arts and science] programs is mainly the cost of our staff.”
In the coming school year, she said, the number of art lessons for kindergartners will be reduced to six a week from nine, and music lessons will be every two weeks instead of weekly.
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