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Kettering schools, YMCA to address issues in new child care deal

Dayton Daily News - 7/6/2022

Jul. 5—KETTERING — Parents with questions about Kettering City Schools' new childcare program with the YMCA of Greater Dayton can get them addressed at a forum scheduled July 20 at Fairmont High School.

Kettering schools announced a three-year deal with the YMCA this spring after Superintendent Scott Inskeep said staff shortages prompted the district to contract for the services. For years, Kettering schools has run an in-house before- and after-school child care program for district families.

The 6:30 p.m. forum July 20 in Fairmont's Recital Hall is set to include two YMCA childcare directors sharing details about the program, assisting families in getting children registered and addressing questions, according to Kettering schools.

The district plans to have staff on hand "to support the transition to the YMCA" but "it will be the Y childcare staff who will be the ones answering questions and assisting families," Kari Basson, district spokeswoman, said in an email.

Price has been a key concern for parents who use the program, which has drawn anywhere from 250 to 500 students a week, Inskeep has said.

Kettering's board of education approved an agreement that will keep costs at $7 an hour for one child and $4 an hour for each additional kindergarten through sixth-grade student.

The YMCA will also offer several flat-rate options that may reduce the amount some families are paying, Inskeep said. The YMCA operates a publicly funded program, which may make some families eligible for financial aid to cover costs, Inskeep said earlier.

A weekly flat rate would be $40 for the morning, $60 for the afternoon or $90 for a full-time combination, records show.

The program would run from 6 a.m. to the start of school and from the end of school until 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, said Vickie Dannals, executive director of YMCA Child Care Services

Services will be available at all elementary schools while Kettering Middle School and Van Buren Middle School students will be served at their respective schools in the morning, Dannals said.

After school care for sixth-graders at KMS will be held at Indian Riffle and sixth-graders at Van Buren will be taken to Orchard Park, she added.

The Y does not anticipate that seventh- and eighth-graders will need afterschool care, but if it is needed it will be addressed with each family, Dannals said.

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