WOODLAND SCHOOL DISTRICTBOARD OF DIRECTORS
WCC/YCC UPDATE - MARCH 2010
Background Information: The district began the WCC program roughly 9 years ago to provide before and after school care for Woodland School District students in grades K-6. Since that time, the program has expanded to provide all day care for kindergarten students and select preschool aged students before they enter Kindergarten. WCC provides service on all school days and also provides service Monday through Friday through the summer months and is open from 6:30 a.m to 6:00 p.m. The YCC program started in September 2005 and provides before school care on Mondays and after school care Monday through Friday on all school days. YCC is not available during the summer.
Rate Information: School year registration fee of $45.00 per child and $25.00 registration fee for summer. Rates are $3.50/hour for one child, $3.00/hour per child for 2 or more children and $2.00 per hour per child for low-income families.
WCC Family/Student Information - WCC currently has 102 active students, which represent 72 Woodland families. They average around 24 kids in the morning, but have seen as many as 41 on late-start Mondays. Afternoon averages are around 30 kids per day. The all-day kindergarten and preschool averages 10-12 per day, depending on the day and time of day (some kids attend the Co-Op preschool part time and come to WCC for the remainder of their day). At his time, there are about 30 students who qualify for the reduced hourly rate, or almost 40% of the registered students.
WCC Activities: WCC is currently running a vegetable/plant fundraiser and will be doing their annual cookie dough fundraiser in June. They raise money to provide special events such as Mad Science and other field trips during the summer. They have homework/reading time, arts and crafts and visit the public library once per month.
YCC Family/Student Information - YCC currently has 22 active students, which represent 12 families from the Yale Valley. On Monday mornings they serve 8-10 students and after school varies, with 5-12 students per day. YCC currently has 3 students who qualify for the reduced hourly rate, or about 13.5%. However, the coordinator at YCC believes that even the $2.00 rate deters some families and if there was additional assistance available that more families would use YCC.
YCC Activities: Each month at YCC the Coordinator (Lesley Miller) has tried to incorporate a "theme". The kids are currently planting a seed garden and after spring break will be taking care of "Ladybug Land" where the kids will get to watch the stages of ladybugs from larvae to actual ladybugs. The students will then release them in the school rose garden. Each day YCC kids are expected to complete at least 30 minutes of homework/reading time. They also have craft projects, free/game time and Fridays are time for popcorn and a movie. Each week they typically complete 2 crafts related to an upcoming holiday. YCC students are also in charge of setting up for movie nights for the Yale PTO. The students make posters for advertising the events and set up the gym.
Financial Information: Through the end of March, the two programs together are running at a loss of about $12,000.00 with the projected loss for the year to be approximately $17,000.00. Both programs are very aware of every penny they spend. The increased number of free/reduced families has had a direct effect on the final loss for these programs.
Moving Forward: In talking with the coordinators and other staff and parents about these two programs, I think the board would agree that they provide a valuable service to the community. As noted above, the high rate of low-income families has a measured impact on the financial loss of these programs each year. Through the Budget Advisory Team meetings, we have been made aware of a program available to our parents through DSHS Department of Early Learning in which they would apply for childcare benefits and the state would then subsidize the care. The WCC and YCC programs would receive the same hourly rate for full-pay students as the low-income families. This program is called the Working Connections Child Care Program. I have been in contact with the Department of Early Learning and Missy and I are signed up for an orientation to learn more about how to go about getting the programs certified so that our parents can apply for benefits. If we are able to become certified, we would increase our current hourly rate and no longer have the subsidized rates for low income families. We are still in the early stages of figuring this out, but I will keep you posted as things evolve.
Sad Note: As you saw from the consent agenda, Lesley Miller, who has been the YCC Coordinator for the past couple of years has gotten a full-time job and will no longer be running YCC. Lesley has done a great job up there and she will be missed. We are currently in the process of filling her position, as her last day is April 19th!