Corvallis School District officials have pointed out areas that need clarification in a front-page story Tuesday about its all-day kindergarten program.

This year, 124 students are enrolled in the tuition-based enrichment program, not 224. Students are not taught new material through the enrichment program. Rather, the program engages them in activities such as storytelling and games to reinforce previously learned material.

Another 120 students are enrolled in all-day kindergarten at Garfield Elementary and Lincoln K-8 schools. However, the all-day kindergarten programs at those schools are not tuition-based and include direct instruction.

Garfield and Lincoln are Title 1 schools. For the past two years, the schools have used federal Title 1 funds to run their all-day programs. Prior to that, they used a combination of tuition fees and Title 1 funds.

If the district decides to discontinue its all-day kindergarten enrichment program, Garfield and Lincoln could continue to run their programs if the schools receive enough Title 1 funds and want to continue spending those funds on all-day kindergarten.

However, if the district keeps the all-day kindergarten enrichment program, it has to cover the cost of all schools' programs. That could cost the district as much as $300,000 next school year.

In past years, the program paid for itself fully with tuition fees from parents. But in 2007, the Oregon Attorney General's Office decided that all students who are eligible for free/reduced lunches also were eligible for full scholarships from kindergarten tuition programs across the state.

The added cost of picking up tuition for the additional students eligible for scholarships caused a shortfall of $50,000 for the district this school year, which the Corvallis Public Schools Foundation is covering.