'Long overdue': Louis Riel School Division switching to full-day kindergarten this year

To start this school year, kids going into kindergarten will be doing it a little bit differently in one school division.

The Louis Riel School Division announced it will be starting all-day kindergarten in all of its schools.

"(It's) long overdue that we welcome children into our public schools in this way," said Christian Michalik, the superintendent and CEO of the school division.

Michalik said the division's own pilot project and other studies on full-day kindergarten have shown upsides even though it costs more.

Angela Fossay has been doing full-day teaching at Lavallee School for five years. She said she was apprehensive at first, but that thought has since changed.

"I started thinking it was going to be a long day for them, but now that I have done it for a few years, I would never go back to half days," said Fossay.

She said it's worth it for the kids.

"At the end of the year, (there is) so much growth in the kids. They leave with a really strong foundation of literacy skills, of numeracy skills, and really have a good base for starting grade one."

Kindergarten is publicly funded for half days in Manitoba, but the Louis Riel School Board voted to increase taxes by one per cent in their division to pay for the full day.

After an eight-year pilot project, the Winnipeg School Division did away with full-day kindergarten in 2021.

Superintendent Matt Henderson said cost, classroom space and student performance factored into the decision.

"What they found was that the gains made by students in the full-time programs were the same as those in half-time," said Henderson.

However, some parents CTV News Winnipeg spoke to said they would love full-day kindergarten.

"I personally don't think I could manage a half-day kindergarten, like with work. It wouldn’t work for us, and finding daycares wouldn't work," one woman said.

"I work a full workday and so he's in daycare for that whole time. So for me personally, I don't see much of a difference. It would just be more challenging with childcare only being able to do half days," another woman said.

Michalik said the division is really invested in the program and expects this will also eventually help with access to more daycares in the area.