The Juneau School Board held off on returning $1.05 million in funding earmarked for child care to the City and Borough of Juneau this week amid questions about the current privately-run program and the possibility of an additional operator in the future.
Board Vice President Elizabeth Siddon said at a meeting Tuesday she still has questions around how things are going with Auke Lake Preschool, like the status of its state licensing. Auke Lake Preschool started running an after-school program at the beginning of this school year after the district stopped operating its own.
“I just think we’re not ready, especially in a final reading, to make this decision,” Siddon said. “We don’t have all the information about the programs and what options we have for kids at all of our sites.”
Siddon said there is also a possibility for YMCA Alaska to expand its child care program to Juneau, and that the city funding might be able to be used for that.
Nate Root is the CEO of YMCA Alaska. The organization currently runs after-school child care in Anchorage, the Mat-Su Borough and Kodiak.
In an interview with KTOO, Root said YMCA is looking into how feasible it would be to expand its after-school program to Juneau. He toured three schools last year and said the organization is working on surveys to see how many families are interested in the program.
He said running a program depends on how financially sustainable it will be. And it will still take a while to get licensed by the state if they move forward with starting a program in Juneau.
“To be completely transparent, it would look like the soonest we would open a program would be the beginning of the 26-27 school year,” he said.
Derik Swanson is the co-owner of Auke Lake Preschool, which runs the current after-school child care program out of Harborview Elementary, Auke Bay Elementary and Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx̱ – Glacier Valley Elementary.
He said in an interview Friday that the program is still currently unlicensed. Swanson said staffing issues have delayed the process, but with those now resolved, he plans to keep working on getting licensed.
“It’s been pretty successful overall,” Swanson said. “It was kind of a rush to get the program started and up and running, but now it seems to be running fairly smoothly.”
Swanson was unaware of the potential for YMCA to expand to Juneau, but said child care providers in the city generally work together to meet the high demand.
The school board unanimously agreed to discuss the state of the after-school child care program and the remaining city funding at its facilities committee meeting on Feb. 3.
