East Hampton School District officials on Tuesday said it is their goal to restore the full-day prekindergarten program at the John M. Marshall Elementary School. Those classes were reduced to half-days this year because of space restrictions made necessary by the pandemic. The proposed 2021-22 budget provides for such a program.
"The overall consensus from the prekindergarten team is that they would like to go back to full-day," said Karen Kuneth, the interim elementary school principal.
Christina DeSanti, the school board vice president, said it had not been an issue of money, and that ultimately the pandemic will influence the final decision. "It's more about what's going on with the space. . . . We get a lot of 'Oh, you cut the prekindergarten,' " she said. "No, we didn't. It's not a budgetary thing. It was a space and safety issue."