Local school introduces new program to help parents paying for after school care
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IDAHO FALLS — For parents who may be paying extra to have their kids in after-school care or programs, the Hope Lutheran School’s new model can help.
Hope Lutheran School decided to expand their day by 45 minutes because of the increasing number of students in after-school programs. Now, Monday through Thursday, the school will be ending at 4:05 p.m. instead of 3:15 p.m.
From 4:05 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., kids will have the option of participating in the school’s expanded academic track at no additional cost.
“By expanding our academic day we could offer better learning opportunities for the students and at the same time help parents who are searching for after school care find better options for their children,” David Roth, the school’s director of operations, says.
Students are usually out of classes on Friday and class will still end around 3:15 p.m. for kindergarten students.
Roth says this expanded track is like a traditional after-school program with more structure. It will allow students to participate in language studies, robotics, computer coding, and expanded music offerings. These classes are available to students in Kindergarten through sixth grade.
“We thought the program would work really well since many of the families in the area work on a 4/10 schedule, and so having those Fridays off it just seemed to make a lot of sense,” Roth says. “We do offer a Friday Day Camp which is structured at a small additional fee for students who still need that coverage for the entire week.”
When the administration first considered this model, they surveyed all the parents in the community. The administration originally thought it best to extend the school for everyone until 5:30 p.m.
“We found that might cause problems for parents who had extracurricular activities, dance or sports, things that they wanted their kids to participate in. We certainly don’t want to take away from that,” says Roth.
Roth says they still exceed all of the states hour standards, even by taking the day off on Fridays and offering that expanded academic track. Staff members will still have their same class just like they do now, but instead of going to 3:15 p.m., they’ll go to 4:05 p.m.
The first portion of that expanded academic program will still be spent in class with their current teacher. It’s a time for extra project-based learning, tutoring, and homework help. The students will rotate through to their other teachers after 45 minutes, Roth says. One day, for example, they may have their younger kids in a Latin class and the older kids might be in their expanded music program. The next day, teachers could have two different versions of robotics and coding they can run.
“(We’re) basically dividing the students up by ability and grade,” Roth says.
The school is playing with a couple of different options for the final day of the week.
“We’ve talked about integrating a scout troop into our curriculum. We’ve talked about doing some sort of athletic or organized sport during that time, just something that would be of value to our students and to the community, but would still fit in with our overall academic mission,” Roth says.
One of the things they found is what many parents were paying for after-school care is equivalent to what their tuition is. By removing that cost, parents who are paying for after-school care can now save money every month.
“We have had a tremendous response from our existing parents,” Roth says. “For other parents who thought private school was out of their reach, because of this new program, private school might be an option for them.”
This program will be implemented for the 2020 school year and enrollment is always open.
Find more information on the school’s website.