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Mashpee school proposal must factor in child care

Cape Cod Times - 1/25/2017

Jan. 25--MASHPEE -- Details of Mashpee's plan for later school start times will continue to be worked out now that school officials have discovered demand for before-school child care could be greater than expected.

School officials are mulling whether to rearrange the days at each of the town's three schools with an aim to give teenagers the sleep research shows they need. Mashpee Middle-High School's day would run from 8:25 a.m. to 2:55 p.m., Quashnet Elementary School's from 9:05 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. and Kenneth C. Coombs School from 9:10 a.m. to 3:40 p.m., according to the proposal.

The School Committee postponed a vote on the proposal earlier this month to seek more information, including on projected demand for before-school child care that would allow parents to drop off their elementary-age children beginning at 7 a.m. at no charge. Preliminary results released last week indicate that demand for that service would grow more than anticipated, schools Superintendent Patricia DeBoer said.

The program, which is run by the Recreation Department, currently serves 14 students. The school department had planned to subsidize the cost of increased enrollment resulting from later school start times, which was expected to come in at $20,000. But with enrollment expected to be more than initially thought, officials are going back to the drawing board.

"A very, very large number of children would have to access this program," DeBoer said at a Board of Selectmen's meeting Monday.

DeBoer and School Committee Chairman Don Myers were invited to the board meeting after Selectman John J. Cotton said he heard from parents who were concerned the cost of the child-care program would eventually be passed on to them. There is even greater uncertainty with the survey results.

"I'm not even assured that we can cover the cost for one year," Myers said. "We need to go back and look at everything."

DeBoer said several surrounding communities with school start times around 9 a.m. offer before-school care and charge a fee.

Myers and DeBoer said school officials would continue to work out the logistics of the late-start plan before any School Committee vote.

- Follow Chris Lindahl on Twitter: @cmlindahl.

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