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Holy Trinity Catholic School Division is expanding its partnership with the Regina YMCA this year by offering more programming for families and children before and after school.
The YMCA currently operates five before-and-after (B&A) school programs in Moose Jaw, while Holy Trinity started another this fall, Sarah Phipps, superintendent of learning, explained during the recent board meeting. Meanwhile, early learning centres for children ages three and four operate in three Catholic elementary schools, but these are half-day programs.
The before-and-after school programs offer care to children, where parents can drop off their kids at 7 a.m., and the YMCA worker offers snacks and activities, she continued. Kids are with classmates all day, so there are fewer transitions from home to daycare to school and back again.
The B&A program is a fee-for-service initiative, costing $305 for full-time care, $170 for only the mornings, and $215 for only the afternoons.
Fees to attend early learning centres are $135 per month for full-time care and $85 per month for half-time care.
While the B&A program is at all Catholic elementary schools, some programs have higher enrolment, registration and full-time uptake than others, Phipps remarked.
“Some of those (less well-attended ones) we’re looking at putting a pause on programming there until we have more interest or using the next couple of weeks to drum up interest from the families who had originally signed their notice of intent,” she said.
The B&A program at St. Mary School is at capacity with 12 kids, while St. Michael and St. Margaret schools each have nine children in the program. The other programs are not nearly as full, sometimes because families pay for full-time care but only send their kids a couple of times a week.
The YMCA’s goal is to have one worker for every 12 children. Meanwhile, the early learning centres usually have 16 children and two workers watching over them.
The YMCA is starting a program at St. Michael and St. Margaret schools called Kinder Club, which is for kindergarten pupils who attend school a couple of days a week and need daycare the other days, Phipps added. This program is not in Shaunavon because a pre-school exists there, while there are discussions in Swift Current with the Family Resource Centre about something similar.
“We’re in talks with two different agencies in Swift Current about that piece. We did talk to the YMCA out of Regina about doing it (there) as well, but they just didn’t want to overextend themselves and make sure that the Regina ones are taken care of,” said education director Ward Strueby.
More information about what the YMCA offers in Moose Jaw can be found at regina.ymca.ca.
It can be difficult for parents to transport their kids from home to daycare to school or some combination thereof, so allowing families to have their children at school full-time while parents work should benefit kids and families overall, Strueby added.
The next Holy Trinity board meeting is Monday, Oct. 24.
