Study Cautions Against District-Run Child Care Program

The Easton Area School District should not operate before- and after-school child-care services. That is the recommendation of a report commissioned by the school board to investigate the feasibility of a districtwide program.

If it were to decide to offer such services, it should do so through already-established, licensed and local child-care services and all such services should pay the district rent for the use of space, Assistant Superintendent Joseph Kish said.

Additionally, the need factor for each school should be assessed before any new programs are implemented.

For now, the programs in place at Forks and Tracy Elementary schools will go on during the coming school year.

But in the future, the programs may be re-evaluated, board members indicated.

“It's the schools' responsibility to educate the children, not take care of them before and after school,” said board member Millie Mandarino.

Board president Kerry Myers concurred.

“We just faced a $14 million deficit, and we want to add a program for the convenience of a few. That's wrong,” he said. “I don't feel like it's the district's or the taxpayers' responsibility.”

In favor of instituting a districtwide program, board member Kerri Leonard-Ellison said, “But it can't hurt to provide it.”

At Tracy and Forks, the district currently provides the facilities, utilities and all custodial maintenance to the care providers at no charge.

Tracy's program is run by Little People Country Club and Forks' by Forks-Lehigh Valley Children's Centers Inc. Both are listed as non-profits by the district, but their status with the state is unclear.

Taking over the programs and running them in-house would be prohibitively expensive, Kish said.