Keystone Oaks schools will start full-day kindergarten in the 2015-16 school year with the hope that the district’s youngest students will learn more with more time in the classroom.

“We really couldn’t get into content areas, like science and social studies, in two-and-a-half hours that we can get into in a whole day,” said Assistant Superintendent Kathy Foster.

In a longer school day, teachers can cover material beyond basic language arts and math skills, adding elements of science and social studies, Foster said.

Students will have time to practice socialization and motor skills; teachers will have opportunities to “remediate” students who fall behind, or offer extra activities for those who are more advanced.

Starting in the next school year, two sections of each kindergarten class will be combined into a single group that will attend for the entire day, five days a week. The start and end times vary among the three elementary schools.

Staffing and classroom space should be adequate, Foster said, though the budget for 2015-16 will include money for another teacher or two if an enrollment increase makes hiring necessary.

Keystone Oaks enrolls about 1,970 students; its elementary schools are Aiken in Green Tree, Myrtle Avenue in Castle Shannon and Dormont.

Heather Davis, who has a son in second grade and a daughter starting kindergarten in the fall at Dormont Elementary, favors the change.

“It’s not only to the benefit of students but to the benefit of teachers, as well… You’re leaving them less than two hours to be able to learn,” Davis said of the current program after time for play and snacks is subtracted from class.

“I hope that the extra time spent at school will be for increased enrichment and not additional time to prep for future state tests,” said Kelli Stewart, parent-faculty organization president at Dormont Elementary. She said full-day kindergarten might make Keystone Oaks more attractive, and competitive with other schools.

Kyle Snow, who oversees the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Center for Applied Research, said many districts nationwide are switching to or considering full-day kindergarten, partly because of Common Core state learning standards.

“From the district’s perspective, when you go from half-day to full-day kindergarten, you see a bump up in assessments,” Snow said. “From the parents’ perspective, a range of studies show full-day kindergartners tend to achieve more than kids in half-day kindergarten, especially in academic skills.”

Some benefits seem to fade over time, he cautioned. The initial jump in the district’s achievement for kindergartners levels off once multiple classes go through full-day programs, and the advantage for students who got full-day kindergarten fades as they move through grades and teachers help less-advanced students catch up.

The Keystone Oaks School Board approved the plan, 6-2, last week, with board members Matt Cesario and Joe Finucan opposed and Robert Brownlee absent.

“I am not against full-day kindergarten. I see it as a nice-to-have item, but not a need,” said Finucan, adding the district has other issues to address.

Cesario said many parents wanted all-day kindergarten, but educational data was mixed on its long-term effectiveness. “With the vote behind us, I want to make full day kindergarten successful for our incoming class,” he wrote in an email.

District administrators will meet with kindergarten teachers Tuesday during an in-service day to talk about the transition, Foster said.

“You know you’re going to make some segment of the district unhappy with the decision; it might not even be what’s best for every kid,” said board member Dan Domalik, chairman of the budget and finance committee. “It was very important to me that most of the community seemed in favor of it, and the faculty were supportive of it.”

Not all of Keystone Oaks’ surrounding school districts offer full-day kindergarten. Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair and Bethel Park schools have half-day programs; Pittsburgh, Chartiers Valley and Baldwin-Whitehall have full-day programs.

“We looked at full-day kindergarten back in 2002-03,” said Bethel Park schools spokeswoman Vicki Flotta. “It continues to be a topic of discussion, but for now we’re pretty satisfied with our program.”

Pennsylvania doesn’t mandate kindergarten, said Sarah McCluan, spokeswoman for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, but, “With the emphasis on early-childhood education, most districts have it.”

Matthew Santoni is a staff writer forTrib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5625 or msantoni@tribweb.com.

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