Club, district to offer child care before school in fall
Program designed to help working parents
RIDGEFIELD — Finding cost-effective and reliable child care before and after school has typically been a challenge for working parents, especially with children in elementary school.
That’s why the school district has launched a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Ridgefield to offer a new, cost-effective, before-school program in the fall.
The program, announced at Monday’s school board meeting, will be for parents with children in three elementary schools with latearrival start times — Barlow Mountain Elementary School, Farmingville Elementary School and Veterans Park Elementary School. They all start the school day at 9 a.m.
“We heard from parents who had problems finding day care,” Ridgefield Superintendent Susie Da Silva said. “We surveyed parents at all six elementary schools and discovered parents at our three latearrival schools had the most challenges. We worked with other communities to see what was affordable for them.
“We looked at private and nonprofit organizations to see what they had to offer. Cost, transportation, location and programming were all
“We heard from parents who had problems finding day care. We surveyed parents at all six elementary schools and discovered parents at our three late-arrival schools had the most challenges. We worked with other communities to see what was affordable for them.” Ridgefield Superintendent Susie Da Silva
factors in determining who we would select. We also wanted kindergarten students included.”
Assistant Superintendent Cory Gillette and Ridgefield Elementary School Director Linda Johnson did the research and Johnson sent out the surveys in March. The decision was to partner with an organization centrally located in town, the Boys and Girls Club of Ridgefield.
Part of the high cost of child care with private organizations comes from transportation costs. With the Boys and Girls Club partnership there will be no transportation costs. Location is one reason, with the Boys and Girls Club a short walking distance to Veterans Park, no bus is needed there. Adults from the Boys and Girls Club will walk the children to school. School b uses will take children to the Barlow Mountain and Farmingville schools.
Mike Flynn, chief executive officer of the Boys and Girls Club of Ridgefield, was approached in March to discuss the partnership. He said the Before School Program will be modeled after the Boys and Girls Club After School program.
Flynn stressed that the B oys and Girls Club is not a day care facility and the Before School Program is just another program the organization offers.
“We’ve been around for 86 years and 15 years ago we did some big renovations, we’ve grown considerably with 2,900 members,”
Flynn said. “We have many programs, including our own after-school care, and so we are just adding a morning program now.
“Our mission here is to always be affordable and fees will never be a barrier. We offer scholarship funding to help with costs in our programs. Our beforeschool care cost will be low and it will take care of personnel and labor costs.”
Flynn said that a typical before-school program at another place can cost up to $20 per child. The Boys and Girls Club cost will only be $10 per child per day, or $50 per week per child.
For now, the number of children in the program will be limited to 225. Between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. children will have access to the programs offered at the Boys and Girls Club including the arts and use of the art studio, character development, health (exercise), sports and recreation, and education, including help with homework if needed.
Flynn said enrollment will be held between now and July 1. For more information on the Boys and Girls Club of Ridgefield go to www. BGCRidgefield.org.
“We’ll see how enrollment goes and make adjustments if needed,” Flynn said. “But there is potential for the program to grow. I think this is a win-win for everyone.”