Shepherd Elementary School is measuring community interest in adding an after-school child care program for students.
The school’s Facebook page posted a survey Tuesday asking parents to fill out the 10-question inquiry to gauge the need and appeal.
“Right now we’re just putting out feelers,” survey organizer and vice principal, Jason Wolf said. “I’ve had a few parents in the past ask me about a program, so we’re just asking to see if there would be enough interest that we can make it viable.”
The questionnaire asks various questions like “What is the highest amount you consider reasonable to pay per child for after school care per week?” and “How late into the evening would you need child care to be available?”
“We’re looking for an organization to help us deliver the program,” he said. “We can’t run it through the school, so we need an outside entity to engage with us on how to make it all possible. The survey will answer questions and provide the feedback that a few interested organizations will need to move forward.”
The survey will be available for a few weeks to maximize the amount of responses. Along with the Facebook post, the study will be mentioned in the upcoming newsletter that goes out on Friday when the students go home.
“If there’s enough interest then we need to figure out how much money we need to get it off the ground,” he said. “Our goal is to make this self-sustaining. We’re not trying to make any money off of this. This is to help the parents and our kids in having someplace to go after school.”
Wolf went on to explain how each child has their own unique situation to deal with when the final bell rings at the end of the day.
“We have some kids that are going home alone,” he said. “Kids that are going to different grandparents houses on different days of the week, or they’re going to their friend’s house.”
Near the end of Tuesday’s school day, Wolf had already collected answers from approximately 75 parents.
“We’re reaching out to other schools to see how they’re running their programs,” he said. “We’re meeting with other people that are running similar programs in the area to get information from them. Other schools have had successful programs over the years, so let’s see if we can do some of what they do and put together one of our own.”