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Afterschool care has been a difficult discussion in Sudbury for years. Sudbury Extended Day is a popular local nonprofit that has been serving the majority of students inside the Sudbury Public Schools (SPS) school buildings for decades. But a waiting list of students still remains, and there are limited alternative programs for parents to choose from.
Code Ninjas now operates a program at Loring Elementary School. It has proven to be a popular option, but also one of the only new options made available to students in recent years.
During the May 18 meeting of the Park and Recreation Commission, members discussed past, present and future efforts to partner with Sudbury Public Schools with newfound optimism, citing the upcoming change in leadership at SPS. Annette Doyle will take over as Interim Superintendent in just over a month.
Chair Mara Huston noted how SPS policy changes over the years have made it more difficult for the department to serve SPS students. “There is a lot of policy changes that have happened over the years. And maybe with the new Interim Superintendent — who has been in Sudbury for a long time and knows the history of all these things as well as I do, if not more and better — there might be opportunities to make some changes that could benefit the Community Center.”
There were multiple concepts floated throughout the discussion, including operating a larger program inside the school buildings in parallel to Sudbury Extended Day, as well as designing a program that could bus the students from the schools to the Fairbank Community Center.
While the Park and Recreation Commission was meeting, the SPS School Committee was in its own meeting, discussing a memo from Superintendent Brad Crozier that concluded “At this time, the administration cannot guarantee “everyday” consistency for any outside organization across all elementary schools. Any requests for after-school enrichment space would need to be reviewed on a building-by-building basis while considering the unique operational needs of each school.” (Page 108)
Space has been one of the primary limiting factors cited by SPS for years. During the School Committee discussion, Crozier explained that it’s not just square footage, but the nature of the spaces that are available. Some of the more frequently “available” spaces have no desks, or are carpeted—limiting the types of programs that can operate in the space.
These start-and-stop conversations between the Park and Recreation Department and SPS leadership have been happening for several years, and very little progress has been made in identifying a viable solution. The lack of space in the schools creates a transportation challenge, as any additional program would have to safely transport students off site.
The previous Park and Recreation Director secured funding for a van that takes a small number of students from Ephraim Curtis Middle School to the Fairbank Community Center on a limited basis. Staff informed the Commission that participation is often very low in that program, and the van limits how many students they can transport to less than 12.
Interim Park and Recreation Director Amy Hamilton, in tandem with Assistant Town Manager Victor Garofalo, explained that the department needs to increase and bolster the programming offered at the Fairbank Community Center before transportation solutions could be evaluated. However, Hamilton did note that one potential strategy would be to create a a direct relationship with the same company that provides bus service to SPS.
If afterschool programs could be modeled to cover the cost of transportation, the department might be able to avoid some of the complexity of working through SPS for transportation according to Hamilton.
There are no breakthroughs just yet, however Commissioners were optimistic about the potential to finally address the issue for the community. Chair Mara Huston concluded her remarks to Hamilton “I think together we can solve this problem. It’s a huge problem and I think we can solve it.”
