3 organizations plan full-day care at Henrico public schools this fall

Three nonprofit organizations are planning to turn as many as 16 or 17 Henrico County public schools into temporary childcare centers once school begins in virtual mode Sept. 8.

The YMCA of Greater Richmond, Henrico Police Athletic League and Henrico Education Foundation intend to offer full-day care during at least the first nine weeks of the school year, when most public school students in the county will be learning on a fully virtual basis. And Henrico County’s Board of Supervisors next month will consider allocating $2.5 million to help the organizations make those services available at a lower cost to families that need them.

Henrico Schools officials are partnering with the three organizations because each already has a presence in the public schools. The YMCA intends to offer its services at five schools initially, with the possibility of expanding to more, according to YMCA of Greater Richmond Chief Advancement Officer Abigail Farris Rogers.

Henrico PAL, which currently offers after school programs at Harvie, Lakeside and Baker elementaries, will offer full-day care at three sites, though it hasn’t determined which ones yet. HEF currently operates its Community Learning Center program at Ratcliffe and Glen Lea elementaries and Wilder Middle; it will offer a full-day program at one as-yet-unnamed location.

Each organization intends to target its programs to Henrico employees, first-responders, low-income families and other working families that lack affordable daycare options. Funding from the county, which would come through the federal CARES Act, could be allocated as part of a $17.6-million funding boost for the school system Sept. 1.

If approved, the YMCA would use its portion of the $2.5 million to reduce the cost of weekly childcare from $162 per week to $100 per week, Rogers told Henrico supervisors during a Tuesday night work session. It also would offer eligible families additional financial assistance based upon their income levels – up to 90% of the remaining cost, so that the lowest income families would pay just $10 a week, she said.

For Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson, that was an important pledge.

During Tuesday’s meeting, he said that in exchange for receipt of the money, each of the three organizations should make a similar commitment.

"If we are committing this money. . . you need to carve out space for people who cannot afford these programs,” Nelson said.

Cashwell: 'Quite a difference' between daycare, school

As rumors of schools being turned into makeshift daycares circulated in recent weeks, some in the community have questioned how such a plan would be deemed acceptable while the School Board has deemed it too dangerous for the same students to return to those same buildings for class.

Brookland District Supervisor Dan Schmitt asked Henrico Schools Superintendent Amy Cashwell if the system would be evaluating the process to prepare for an eventual in-person return.

“There are lessons to be learned, absolutely,” she replied, “but to draw an apples to apples comparison. . . there’s quite a difference.”

That’s because while the YMCA’s programs may attract between 100 and 150 students per school, they’ll all be kept in separate groups of no more than 13, according to Rogers, and the Y will not provide any transportation or food service.

Preparing for twice or four times that many students to return – many of whom would need to be bused and fed by the school system – would present a number of other unique challenges, Cashwell said.

The other $15.1 million requested by the school system that supervisors could fund with CARES Act money next month includes:

• $8.3 million for PPE and cleaning materials, as well as additional temporary clinic assistants;
• $3.4 million for overtime pay for facilities staffers, temporary school security officers, additional bus drivers and instructional assistants;
• $1.3 million for cleaning supplies and temporary day custodians;
• $1 million for digital resources, temporary psychologists, temporary social workers and counselors for students;
• $1.1 million for cleaning supplies for buses and additional bus assistant pay, WiFi hot spots, iPads, Chromebook replacements and repairs and supplies for meal delivery to classrooms.

That funding would cover those needs for the entirety of the school year, according to HCPS Chief Financial Officer Chris Sorensen. Although school will begin in virtual mode for nearly all students, school facilities still will need to be cleaned and maintained as usual, because some staff will be working in them and some students will be attending limited in-person classes or activities at certain schools, Sorensen said.

Henrico County has received about $28.8 million in CARES Act funding and will receive another identical payment in the coming days, Henrico Finance Director Meghan Coates told supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting. It has allocated about $21 million of the first amount, mostly to cover personnel and PPE costs. The proposed money for the school system would come from the next payment.

School officials indicated at a School Board meeting several weeks ago that they would need $29.8 million more than their current budget allocations to address COVID-related issues during the coming school year. Once the School Board voted for a fully virtual start, they were able to trim that amount down to $22.3 million, Sorensen said. An anticipated funding gap of about $7.2 million would remain after the $15.1 million that could come from the CARES Act next month, but Sorensen said that school officials would monitor needs during the school year and communicate with county finance officials to determine a course of action.