Pre-K takes center stage in plans for Lewisboro Elementary

CROSS RIVER, N.Y. - As they resume consideration of Lewisboro Elementary School’s future, Katonah-Lewisboro School District leaders will be especially focused on plans for a prekindergarten center there.

The school board, which last month heard scaled-back proposals for an LES rebuild centered on greatly expanded pre-K facilities, was expected to act on some of those recommendations when it met on Aug. 27 in the high school.

The district already offers tuition-free pre-K services, but it can accommodate fewer than half the children seeking admission. “There's a lot of demand and just not enough capacity to meet all of that demand,” Dr. Maggie Konrad, the district’s director of learning, told the school board last month.

In two years, that can no longer be the case. A new state law requires school districts to admit all eligible 4-year-olds seeking a pre-K seat, starting in September 2028.

That mandate was voted last spring, shortly after KLSD voters narrowly rejected a $24.5 million refurbishing of LES. While largely designed to accommodate expanded demand for pre-K, the proposed borrowing had included plans for unpopular items like a community center.

Dr. Ray Blanch, superintendent of KLSD schools, outlined a less expensive rebuilding at the board’s July 30 meeting. The revised proposal retains the pre-K facilities while cutting more than $4 million elsewhere.

In a survey taken after voters rejected the borrowing, 1,433 to 1,411, in May, KLSD residents made clear it was cost, not the pre-K center, that ignited their opposition. Blanch suggested at the July meeting that pre-K could be treated as a standalone question in a new vote.

In her July presentation, Konrad, who oversees KLSD’s pre-K program, said that early start for 4-year-olds—“the first step in a child's journey through the public-school life”—has been popular with parents and beneficial for the youngsters.

“We currently have a full-day, state-funded program that's tuition-free for families,” she told the board. “It's funded through a state grant and is run in partnership with the Country Children's Center. . . . They help us with hiring and running the program, but it's really in partnership with KLSD.”

In June, she said, the center “graduated 44 students who will be heading off to kindergarten in just a few weeks and we'll be welcoming 50 additional students for this upcoming 2026-27 school year.”

Those numbers fall far short of demand, Konrad noted, saying, “Typically, we have about 120 families who apply.”

She said early childhood education “has been growing, not just here in New York but around the world.”

“There's a growing body of evidence,” Konrad said, “that shows that providing our students with this rich early start is critical to their success later.”