It’s official: Saucon Valley School District will transition to full-day kindergarten for the 2016-17 school year.

The school board voted 7-2 in support of the full-day program at the March 22 meeting. Voting in opposition were board members Edward Inghrim and Linda Leewright.

Inghrim said he likes how Southern Lehigh School District laid out its full-day kindergarten program.

“I personally like the approach Southern Lehigh is taking,” he said, “which is the one I recommended, where we actually test these kids in advance and then have both full-day sessions and half-day sessions.”

Inghrim added, “Southern Lehigh is approaching this issue with a better solution than our one size fits all.”

District Superintendent Monica McHale-Small referred to a recent poll distributed to parents.

According to the poll, 92 parents have registered their child for kindergarten for the 2016-17 academic year.

“Which I think is roughly where we would be usually,” she said.

Of those 92, Small said 77 indicated a preference for full-day kindergarten, 12 for half-day kindergarten and three expressed no preference.

“At this point, I don’t know that it would be fiscally responsible to try to run a half-day program for 12 students,” Small said.

The district will continue to collect data from the poll, Small noted.

Small also said the district will be rearranging elementary school teachers to accommodate the full-day program.

The district currently offers an extended day program, but due to limited slots, the district considered moving to full-day kindergarten.

“Right now we have many more students our teachers would recommend for the extended day program than we have slots in the extended day program,” Small said.

Board member Ralph Puerta expressed support for the full-day program.

“From what I heard, it seems like there are several potential advantages,” he said.

Another school bus may be needed due to an increase in an enrollment of 60 students.

Puerta said the district should examine any potential increase in cost.