SD73 considers expansion of before and after school child care programs

SD73 eyes more child care

Photo: Castanet

The Kamloops-Thompson school district says it's made major moves to add before and after school child care programs to city schools, and it's considering five more locations to meet the community's need.

At a joint meeting Wednesday night between Kamloops city council and School District 73's board of education, assistant superintendent of early learning and elementary Grant Reilly said expansion of before and after school programs is the mandate to school districts from the ministry.

"I think it's very clear in Kamloops, but also across the province, that child care is a community challenge — it's a community need," he said.

Out of 35 elementary schools in the district, 16 have before and after school programs operating on site. Reilly said five of them have been added in the last 16 months — all in Kamloops.

“The longer range goal would be to have all of our elementary schools with a before and after school care space operating on site, so we’re working towards that,” he said.

He said feasibility studies and strategic planning is needed in order to make that a reality.

Reilly said Sníne, which is slated to open next fall, McGowan Park, Dallas, George Hilliard, Westmount and Haldane elementary schools are locations being considered for before and after school care programs.

“It's not perfect, because we have some places that we definitely know are in need, but because of space we can't have them on this list," he said.

He said SD73 needs to ensure space will be available in the long-term to house the programs at each of the schools, and will need to consider what space is needed to support the students it already serves, as well as added staffing to support the programs.

“Because we can’t be in a situation where we’re trying to put in a before and after school care space only to realize we need a classroom two years down the road,” he said.

“We also know that early childhood educators are in short supply throughout community, throughout the province."

Reilly said students who attend a different catchment school without a program are able to attend programming at a school that does, although the school district doesn’t offer transportation.

He said intensive licensing, renovations or added resources aren’t needed to support additional programs, which he says is why the ministry is seeking to expand those programs across B.C. school districts.

Asked by Coun. Dale Bass about what advocacy could be done on behalf of the school district in order to host full-day childcare programs in school, a ministry initiative, SD73 board chair Heather Grieve said the district could never provide all-day care in its current structure because there isn’t available space.

“Our understanding of the childcare initiative right now is looking at where there is space, where things are possible and focusing initially on the age group that is already included in our schools,” Grieve said.

Carmin Mazzotta, the city’s community and culture director, said an early learning and child care engagement group, which includes SD73 staff, is working on a child care action plan after surveying parents and caregivers last fall.

“It does touch on several of these things, including that the most acute gap is before and after school care,” Mazzotta said of the group's work. “It will have advocacy items for council.”

The plan will be reviewed by the engagement group in March before going to a select committee.