WINNECONNE — Next school year, parents in Winneconne will have a new option for after-school child care with the Boys & Girls Club.
- The Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh will partner with the Winneconne Community School District to provide an after-school program.
- The program is the first of its kind at Winneconne Elementary School.
- Registration for the program opened May 1.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story, with additional details for web).
“I think this is a great opportunity, and I think it will fill a need in the community,” Lisa Hughes, Winneconne Elementary School principal, says.
Hughes has worked in the Winneconne Community School District for 34 years.
“I was a teacher for 16 years, and then after that I became principal,” she says.
As a mother herself, she knows how important child care access is for her community.
“If you can’t be home with your children, what’s the next best thing?” she says.
To provide an additional option for families, the school district will partner with The Boys & Girls Club of Oshkosh to run an after-school program next school year.
“It’s convenient because it’s right here, so there's no transportation issues,” Hughes says. “I know that families would ask fairly often if we have an aftercare program, and my answer’s always been no."
Lindsay Clark, COO of the Oshkosh Boys & Girls Club, says Winneconne parents asked for the program.
“Multiple people emailing us and asking for this,” she says.
The club already runs a program out of the Omro School District, and Clark says availability filled up fast.
The program at Winneconne will cost families $10 a day, which would be about $1,800 for an entire school year. They would also need to pay the $25 membership fee to the Boys & Girls Club.
It’s adding an option to what the Department of Children and Families calls a growing “child care crisis.”
“There’s not a lot of options out there, and Boys & Girls Club, it’s not a daycare, we’re not just there to watch kids, we instill values, we instill culture,” Clark says.
