Windham-Raymond School Board members will hear a proposal to implement all-day kindergarten in Windham schools as part of this year’s budget process, Superintendent Sandy Prince said last week.

Prince told the School Board at its March 11 meeting that he and other administrators felt strongly that Windham kindergarten should run for the full day starting in the 2009-2010 school year. It is an important part of aligning the former Windham School Department’s curricula with the educational plan in Raymond, where all-day kindergarten is already the norm.

Running all-day kindergarten in Windham would likely cost an additional $125,000 annually, Prince said. The matter has not been figured yet into the budget, and Prince acknowledged it might be difficult to implement the program during a year when the budget calls for positions and programs to be cut.

“The question is, is this the time?” he asked the board. “It’s going to be a particularly challenging budget. It’s not going to be a year to add things, or to keep some things.”

One board member, Kate Brix of Windham, said she is not likely to support such an expenditure at this time.

“I’m having a real hard time with that,” she said. “I’m going to have to really be arm-twisted to make it happen this year.”

Windham Primary School Principal Kyle Rhoads will give a presentation on the all-day kindergarten proposal when he speaks with the board about the budget March 25, Prince said. Rhoads is looking at the logistics surrounding a conversion to an all-day program, including dealing with space issues, Prince said.

If the all-day program is approved, Prince said it may be voluntary at first. While some parents are initially against having their 4- and 5-year-olds in school all day, other schools have found that the parents usually warm to the idea by Christmas break of the first year.

“What you find over time is they will buy into it,” Prince said.