A privately-run child care program is set to offer all-day care for school-aged children in several Juneau schools this summer.
Auke Lake Preschool runs Auke Lake RALLY as an after-school child care program at Auke Bay Elementary School, Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx – Glacier Valley Elementary and Harborview Elementary School. Once the school year ends, Auke Lake RALLY will continue to operate as a summer program from May 26 to August 21.
Auke Lake Preschool took over operating RALLY after the district ended the program last year due to staffing issues. The provider now plans to continue the operation during the summer, as the school district used to.
Derik Swanson is the owner. He grew up attending and working for RALLY when the Juneau School District ran it. He said it’s important to him to provide this type of child care to the community.
“If you don’t have a place, a safe place, to put your kids, then your, your life kind of just revolves around making deals, trying to try to figure out what to do with them, and that puts your career on hold. That puts all your plans on hold,” he said. “So we’d like to be able to be just a good, reliable place, and then a place kids look forward to.”
Swanson said he plans to operate summer RALLY every weekday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. While several Juneau organizations offer summer camps for school-aged children, most do not offer all-day care for the entire summer.
RALLY’s monthly rate will be $1000 per child over the summer. It will return to its current afterschool rate of $668 when the school year begins again. The district-run program used to allow families to sign up for specific weeks during the summer. Auke Lake RALLY will have less flexibility, but Swanson said they are willing to offer prorated rates on a case-by-case basis.
“We do want to make deals with individual families or individual cases,” he said. “And we’re still just trying to figure out what would be a fair price that would keep the business soluble but that wouldn’t be too much of a burden on our families.”
Swanson said he also plans to expand the number of spaces this summer to at least 50 at each school. Right now, the afterschool program accommodates around 60 children total at the three school sites.
Auke Lake RALLY is currently unlicensed, preventing families with specific child care vouchers from using them. But Swanson said he aims to get every site licensed by summer, which would allow voucher use.
Swanson said sign-up for summer RALLY is currently open on the Auke Lake Preschool website or by emailing him at dedaycare@hotmail.com.
