EASTON – Officials at Easton Elementary School are splitting their early childhood program in half in an effort to make more time for academics, according to Easton Superintendent Frank Keenan.

The Easton School Committee received during its December meeting a report about changes to the pre-kindergarten program that will help create more time for learning in the classroom, Keenan said Tuesday.

Because of the large number of pupils in the class, about 30, teachers were spending chunks of time every day this year on transitional activities, such as getting children’s winter clothes on and off, he said.

“That cuts down on academic time,” Keenan said. “The change allows for more teacher attention in academics.”

The change involves breaking the class into two groups of about 16 each. One group of 4-year-olds will come to school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The other group will attend class Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The overlap will allow children to spend one day of class together, Keenan said.

Earlier in the school year, officials separated the classes so the pupils were in smaller groups one day of the week and together for the other four school days.

“What we found was that the days where they were broken up [into smaller classes] were much more productive,” Keenan said. “Kids were getting more out of it and parents were saying that their kids were coming home and feeling much better about the school circumstances.”

The change to the early childhood program took effect this week.

As the school committee looks to the day-to-day activities in the district, officials are keeping a focus on the next few months, when the budget process will get under way.

“It’s going to be very challenging because of the state moving into Essential Programs and Services. It’s a completely new funding system and we don’t know how it’s going to impact schools,” Keenan said.

The system changes not only the funding formula, the superintendent said, but also the rules and procedures concerning getting budgets approved.

“It’s going to be a very challenging budget season for all schools as they work through all the new changes,” he said.

As part of its preliminary budget work, the district has been working for a month to get information from the Department of Education about how much funding it will receive for the next budget year.

“As soon as we get information from the state that is solid and credible, and somewhat close to what we’re going to actually get, then we’ll get started to put together a budget,” Keenan said.

Officials hope to receive a comparison draft of state funding shares from Education Commissioner Susan Gendron by the end of this week.

In other news, the school committee went into executive session to discuss the year-end evaluation for Keenan, who has served as superintendent for four years. After the session, the committee indicated its satisfaction with Keenan’s performance and unanimously voted to extend his contract for the 2005-06 school year, the superintendent said. Keenan’s salary will be negotiated later in the year.

The committee will hold its next meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18, at the Easton Elementary School Library.