MINTO – A municipal after-school child care program launched at Palmerston Public School in 2018 will be extended to Minto-Clifford Public School next fall.
In a report at the May 7 council meeting, recreation services manager Matt Lubbers explained the Town of Minto began running an after-school program at the Palmerston school in September of 2018.
As part of a phased-in approach, an RFP to start a similar program in September 2019 at Minto-Clifford Public School was submitted in February to the Upper Grand District School Board and the town was notified in April the proposal was approved.
“We are in a position to run programs concurrently at both schools this fall,” Lubbers stated in the report.
The next step is for the town to enter into an agreement with the school board and then into a purchase agreement for a fee subsidy with the County of Wellington specific to Minto-Clifford Public School.
Council authorized the signing of an agreement with the board regarding the operation of the program at Minto-Clifford.
The existing agreement for Palmerston Public School contains a renewal clause for a three-year term with both the town and board being able to opt out at the end of any school year, so long as 90 days’ notice is given.
As the program provider, the town will be responsible for ensuring at least two adults are on the premises at all times while the program in running, regardless of the number of participants.
Lubbers noted pending changes to provincial child care and education legislation will allow the town to offer the program to junior and senior kindergarten students this fall. Most of the youngsters currently in the program in Palmerston are in Grades 1 to 3.
“Given these changes, we are confident that attendance will exceed 15 participants per site per day this fall,” the report states.
Cost for the program is $10/day per child or $45/week for full week (five day) registrations.
“We’re hoping for about 20 kids a day to make budget,” said Lubbers.
Councillor Ron Elliott asked if the program in Palmerston is currently breaking even financially.
With current enrolment numbers, Lubbers replied, “for Palmerston we’re running a deficit.”
However, he continued, “We’re hoping with the (addition of) JK and SK, with more kids attending, we’ll get a lot closer to break even.”
Lubbers also noted, “It certainly wasn’t our intent when we pursued this to break even … it was one of those services I think we identified that was lacking in this area and we really didn’t see anyone else who was going to be able to step up and do something.”
“As always our town is providing a service for our community. That’s more important than the bottom dollar all the time,” said Elliott.
