The Burnaby school board is looking into creating more before-and-after-school care at local schools in hopes of fulfilling a still-unfulfilled election promise made four years ago by a previous board and city council.
Trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to direct staff to study the feasibility of using existing school space or extra portables on school sites for not-for-profit before-and-after-school-care programs.
Put forward by rookie trustee Bill Brassington, the motion also directed staff to continue working with the City of Burnaby to implement a 2014 joint child-care partnership agreement – this time with a focus on before-and-after-school-care programs instead of daycare for younger kids and babies.
“I think we can all agree that Burnaby families are struggling to find affordable before-and-after-school care for their school-aged children,” Brassington said.
He told the NOW the catalyst for the motion was the imminent closure of the ArtSpace Children’s Arts Centre, which offers after-school arts programs in North Burnaby.
Parents who’ve relied on the program have been left scrambling to find another place for their kids to go after school.
Brassington said before-and-after-school care is a natural fit for the school district because it helps parents and builds community by making schools the social hubs of neighbourhoods.
Not their first rodeo
It’s not the first time the idea of putting more child care in place on school sites had been discussed.
In 2014, just weeks before the municipal election, Burnaby Citizen Association city councillors and school board trustees whipped up significant media attention by signing an agreement they said would triple child-care spaces in the city with the creation of 12 new child-care facilities on school sites starting in 2015.
The district promised to provide the land and the city promised to pick up the tab for buying and placing modular buildings onto it.
The plan has inched ahead slowly since then, and two facilities are schedule for completion at Montecito and Capitol Hill this summer – two elections and nearly five years later.
“I would like to see the commitment originally made by the previous board with the previous council fulfilled,” Brassington said.
Chair Gary Wong, who was on the board when the agreement was signed, said the process of moving it forward has been frustrating.
“The lines of communication (with the city) certainly could have been better, and, yes, we are frustrated as much as anyone because I know what it is that we told our parents and I know where things are at,” he told the NOW.
He placed the responsibility for the delays squarely at the city’s feet.
“What we relied upon totally is what we were told by the city,” he said. “It wasn’t our money.”
New era
Despite the delays, however, Wong said he appreciated that the city was forging ahead with the plan despite ballooning costs and other obstacles.
Because the city’s focus has been daycare for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, however, Wong said the school board also needs to pursue other avenues on its own.
Brassington said the timing was right, given a new focus on daycare by the NDP government and new funding up for grabs.
He’s also confident the agreement with the city will get new life with Mike Hurley in the mayor’s chair.
“We kind of live in a new era of cooperation amongst different levels of government,” he said.
The deadline for the district feasibility study was set for April 1, so that any new plans could be included in discussions around the 2018/19 budget.
Whatever happens after that, the board won’t be making any hasty announcements about new child-care spaces, according to Wong.
“I don’t want to end up in the situation that we did four years ago,” he said.
“We will make the announcement when we feel comfortable that we have everything in place.”
