Question: Should Barrington Public Schools continue to expand the Pre-K program (more classes and moving classes from half-day to full-day), and if so, what are your thoughts on physical spacing and capacity?

TJ Peck (I) — “Barrington is not implementing RIDE best practices for Pre-K which strongly recommend establishing a public private partnership with local early learning centers. Pre-K should be located at all three of the elementary schools. These changes would solve current space issues and prevent the need to build a standalone Pre-K/K School.”

Frazier Bell (I) — “I don’t believe it should be expanded until we have adequate physical space. It is inexcusable that the current administration  has done so at the detriment of other students especially third graders using the cafeteria as a classroom and an entire K-3 community eating in their classrooms.”

Rudy Seber (D) — “Yes, I will always put the interests of the entire student community first to ensure Barrington stays a great destination and its current infrastructure can not do that. We must ensure that we improve our community engagement, communications, & continuity plans so that we can mitigate future issues around spacing & capacity.”

Margaret Reid (D) — “I am a strong proponent of universal Pre-K. That said, the district cannot expand offerings until the space crisis has been alleviated, whether by new buildings or rented pods. For now, we will have to budget for outplacement, which is a very expensive, and hopefully temporary, solution.”