BATH — Regional School Unit 1 and the Brunswick School Department are partnering with the Bath YMCA to offer families child care during younger students’ remote learning days, which parents said has helped both their student’s education and overall wellbeing.
The discounted child care is offered for Pre-K through 5th graders through a Maine Day Programming for School Age Children grant that was made available through the CARES Act. Financial assistance for child care, up to $50 per day, is prioritized for families in need and children of essential workers.
Both RSU 1 and Brunswick schools adhere to mixed in-person learning plans for pre-k through 5th grade students to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19. Students attend school in-person for two days per week and learn online the remaining three days.
Nicole Brassard of Woolwich said sending her son to the Bath YMCA on the days he’s not in kindergarten has helped establish a consistent schedule her son needs. For three days each week he goes to the Bath YMCA where instructors assist him with distance learning.
“When he’s at the Bath YMCA I know he’s with people who care for him and will help him get his school work done,” said Brassard. “It relieves a little bit of pressure off me because I’m an essential worker who needs to be working all day, Monday through Friday. If the YMCA didn’t offer this hybrid care, I’d be lost.”
Although she wishes her son could go to school in-person full-time, she said she believes he’s having a better education experience doing his remote learning at the Bath YMCA that he’d get at home under her guidance.
“When I do school work with him he can get frustrated, but they’re able to get a lot more out of him,” said Brassard. “He looks up to the people at the Bath YMCA and he knows they’re there to help him.”
“The first few weeks of school were very hard and we didn’t start hybrid care until the school board made that almost split-second decision to adopt the hybrid learning plan in September,” she added. “I wish that they would go to school full-time because my son needs consistency, but we’re trying to build a routine now. I understand why the school district is taking precautions and I respect the school board. They’re all doing the best they can.”
Kirstin Hayward moved to Bath in March with her seven-year-old daughter amid the COVID-19 pandemic and had to navigate distance learning in a new school district. She said being able to send her daughter to the Bath YMCA when she’s not in school has allowed her to meet new people and complete her schoolwork while Hayward can work full-time.
“We’re trying to be as cautious as we can with wearing masks and social distancing, but being a single parent who works full-time, I don’t really have a choice,” she said. “If I didn’t have child care for her, I’m in a position where I can work from home, but it’s not easy when you’re solely responsible for teaching and entertaining a 7-year-old.”
Like Brassard, Hayward said she’d rather have her daughter go to school full-time, but understands why both Brunswick and RSU 1 have chosen to continue their mixed in-person learning plan.
As a single parent, Hayward said the schools offering financial assistance for child care has helped her family, especially when she would have to reduce her hours at work to take care of her daughter otherwise.
“It’s just me and her and younger kids especially require a lot of help and supervision,” she said. “If I lost my job or had to cut my hours to take care of her, that means less money for rent and groceries.”
Shanna Crofton, director of curriculum, assessment, instruction and professional development for the Brunswick School Department, said the department is also partnering with Family Focus for families who have previously established child care, as well as other facilities. RSU 1 is only partnering with the Bath YMCA.
Crofton said the department will only partner with licensed child care facilities that follow the same health and safety guidelines from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Maine Department of Education as the schools do.
Crofton said her one concern is the grant funding that supports the program expires on Dec. 30 “but the need isn’t going to go away in December.”
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