None of the new federal funding announced to help school districts deal with COVID-19 will be directed to before- and after-school care in New West – but that doesn’t mean the issue has vanished from the district’s radar.
One of the permitted uses for that federal money, which was announced Aug. 26, is before- and after-school care. But secretary-treasurer Bettina Ketcham told trustees at their Sept. 15 operations committee meeting that none of New Westminster’s share – totalling a little more than $2.5 million – will be directed that way at this point.
In New Westminster, the Westminster Children’s After-School Society runs nine before- and after-school care centres in elementary and middle schools.
Ketcham told trustees that the district’s partners in before- and after-school care are “sufficiently covered in terms of the demand” at this point.
“We will monitor the situation closely, of course,” she said.
Trustee Maya Russell questioned how that can be the case.
“I cannot accept the statement that we have met the demand for before-and-after-school care because I think there is, we can all agree, massive unmet demand,” she said.
Ketcham said the district hasn’t been approached by the providers with a need for additional spaces at this time. She also pointed out that all the district’s schools are full to capacity, and providing more child-care spaces would require room that the district just doesn’t have.
Superintendent Karim Hachlaf agreed with Russell’s point.
“There’s still an ongoing demand within our district for before-and-after-school care, so I want to also reiterate that,” he said.
He told Russell the administrative team is hoping to bring a child-care update to the next operations committee meeting in October.
Russell said the issue is one the district still needs to grapple with.
“One of the challenges is that we know anecdotally about the need for child care, but we haven’t been able to sort of get our hands on any firm, coordinated measures about the need,” she said. “I think that just speaks to the need to coordinate with the city and the providers.”
