ST. JOHN | Lake Central School Corp.'s full-day kindergarten teachers can't seem to help themselves from gushing.

"Boy, it's off to a hot start," said Mark Kellogg, director of primary education. "The teachers are just very effusive about how well the program is going."

The district began offering two voluntary full-day kindergarten classes at each of its six elementary schools this school year. The district had room for 252 students.

"The teachers feel much more relaxed and aren't trying to crush five hours of information into a two-and-a-half hour day," Kellogg said. "They are better able to reach students on an individual basis to do some remediation or enrichment."

The curriculum is identical to half-day kindergarten, except that full-day students have art, music, and physical education classes as well as lunch, recess and quiet time as needed.

Administrators and teachers are discussing how the full-day program might be carried out in the future, given space, overall growing enrollment and financing, he added.

The state doesn't mandate or fund full-day kindergarten. Parents who sign up their children for the program must pay a fee because the program is only funded for a half-day.

"Principals are starting the process now of looking at the space availability and asking, 'Can we maintain the two sections because of growth, where can we hold full-day classes next year, and to how many more students it could be offered?'" Kellogg said.

"We're seeing some growth and coziness in some of our buildings."

The number of students enrolled by school currently are Bibich, 561; Homan, 597; Kolling, 686; Peifer, 531; Protsman, 669; and Watson, 608.

Right now, each elementary school has between 42 and 46 full-day students and anywhere from 45 to 73 half-day kindergarten students.

Principals should have a better idea on classroom availability in early November so school officials can begin to predict whether the full-day program can be expanded.

Recommendations tentatively are expected to come before the School Board for approval in January 2009.