More Hermosa families are relying on an expanded version of the school district’s extended day child care program this year, providing what elected officials describe as an additional option for working parents.
At the beginning of the school year, 156 children were enrolled in the program, compared with a peak of 113 for the previous year, View School Principal Sylvia Gluck told members of the Hermosa Beach City School District Board of Education at a board meeting last month. That number may have increased since last month because, unlike in previous years, parents are now able to enroll children after the school year starts.
The program expansion, which debuted at the beginning of the school year last month, was spurred by an examination done by the board last spring. That study found issues that limited families’ participation, including a lack of flexibility in enrollment options. This year, the program is now structured like a “gym membership,” in which parents pay a set fee for either morning only, afternoon only, or both, and can use the program as many days of the week as they want. Students can be dropped off as early as 7 a.m. before school, and picked up as late as 6 p.m. after.
Though run by the district, the extended day program is not an official part of the school day, and receives no state funding. The a.m. program costs $125 per month, the p.m. is $360, and use of both is $475.
At the district’s September school board meeting, board member Stephen McCall described expanding the program as a “game changer” for working parents.
“You can feel the anxiety at the beginning of the school year if both parents work,” McCall said. “Just trying to figure that out, trying to make it work, figuring out what you can juggle, what things you can sacrifice as far as your career.”
Commute times have dropped slightly in recent years — in part because of an increase in the number of people able to work partially or totally from home — but driving out of area to work remains the norm for most Hermosans, according to data from the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. A majority of Hermosans still spend more than 30 minutes each way getting to work.
That includes Hermosa resident Rob Tabak. Tabak has two children in Hermosa schools, a 6 year old and a 9 year old. This is his family’s third year of using the extended day program. His wife, who commutes to work in Santa Monica, drops the kids off in the morning, and he grabs them in the afternoon, after returning from his job in Culver City. Tabak said that, based on his experience with the parents of his children’s schoolmates, most households have commuting parents.
“There are some other options, but it’s just not always feasible,” Tabak said. He said that his family had examined several private options in and around Hermosa, but found that many of them close too early to be practical. “It’s that 6 oclock hour that’s the important one.”
The increased popularity of the program has meant a need for additional staff. And it has also made claims on classrooms in what are already two overcrowded campuses. The future opening of North School will give the district more flexibility with facilities, and several board members have expressed interest in adding enrichment activities to the program along with expanding its availability.
The extended day program has set time aside for students to do homework. And during a visit to a recent morning session at View, several students were doing independent reading. But there is currently no supervised enrichment activity, and Superintendent Pat Escalante said last spring that the district wanted to see how the expanded program worked before making further modifications.
“Let’s provide childcare for our parents: They need that, we know that. And then we can move into enrichment,” Escalante said.
Tabak said that his kids do sometimes take advantage of the independent homework time, but that he would appreciate enrichment opportunities.
“Music, art, language, anything: At this age, they just want to learn, so you might as well,” Tabak said.
