Making room for all-day kindergarten could mean moving sixth-graders in Mandan public schools.

The idea was proposed at a community forum Monday at the Mandan High School auditorium. Moving the sixth grade was part of two options to accommodate all-day kindergarten for the 2008-09 school year.

"What is more appropriate in my perspective is moving sixth grade," Superintendent Wilfred Volesky said. "When you move them out of the neighborhood schools, it will create enough room for preschool students there. They need to be moved there, too."

Moving sixth-graders would affect 200 pupils, while space would be needed for about 185 kindergarten students. In the district's central office, a preschool program is conducted that Volesky would like to have operate out of the schools.

Next school year, the district can receive additional money from the state for having all-day kindergarten. Instead of receiving half the amount of state funding per kindergarten pupil, the district would receive full state funding per kindergarten student. That is about $3,280 per student.

The district doesn't have enough space in its elementary schools to allow all of its half-day kindergarten classes to run all day. Each classroom that has a morning and afternoon kindergarten would need an additional classroom, and some schools don't have the space. This affects all but Fort Lincoln Elementary School, which already offers all-day kindergarten.

To make space, the current junior high was suggested as a kindergarten or sixth-grade center. The building would be available because the new middle school would be open. Either option, however, would require renovation, including compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It would cost about $105,000 for renovation, staff, supplies and other costs to move the kindergarten to the junior high, and it is estimated at $70,000 for renovation and equipment for moving the sixth-graders there. The renovation to move kindergarten costs more because bathroom facilities and drinking fountains need to be made lower for the students.

Some people in the audience were concerned about using the junior high because the middle school bond campaign hinged on the safety of the junior high, and now the district was coming at them with options for using the building with other students.

"If we don't place anyone in the building, we do not do it (all-day kindergarten) or we do modulars," board member Donna Fishbeck said. The cost of modulars ranged from $55,000 to $80,000 per module, including costs for electricity hook-up and meeting regulations.

A third alternative is to build a sixth-grade wing at the new middle school. It would require voters to pass a bond issue and permission for the district to take out a school construction loan. The project total is estimated at $2.1 million. The middle school was designed for the eventual addition of sixth- graders, but the sixth-grade wing was not bid as part of the construction project that's now under way.

The fourth alternative was to not start all-day kindergarten next year. The district could do this because it is not mandatory. The superintendent said he was concerned because Bismarck still has open enrollment for one more year, and once students open enroll out of the district they do not come back.

"Every one of the Class A schools will have all-day kindergarten next year," Volesky said.

The audience, by a show of hands, supported moving the sixth grade to the junior high as a temporary solution. No decision will be made until December.

There is another community forum set for Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium. The board would like more fifth- and sixth-grade parents to attend. "I wish there were more people," Board member Steve Nardello said. "It affects the sixth grade if we move them."

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@;bismarcktribune .com.)