School division goes full BLAST with child-care pilot
The Louis Riel School Division's BLAST (Before-School, Lunch, and After-School Time) initiative is scheduled to launch on Sept. 4.
Eligible families will be able to drop participating children at school as early as 7 a.m. on all days that classes are in session.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
The Louis Riel School Division's BLAST (Before-School, Lunch, and After-School Time) initiative is scheduled to launch on Sept. 4.
Child care will also be available after dismissal until 5:30 p.m.
Stephen Sobczak said his family could definitely 'work with' the proposed model. 'But I don't want to get my hopes up,' said the father of an incoming Grade 2 student at Niakwa Place School.
Sobczak and his wife were among the parents who waited throughout 2024-25 for a child-care spot that never opened; they relied on grandparents to make do.
More than half of the families who participated in a recent school division survey, representing 2,936 children, indicated they needed assistance with weekday supervision.
Niakwa Place, as well as Archwood School, École Van Belleghem and both elementary schools in Sage Creek — the second of which is scheduled to open in September — were chosen to pilot BLAST and start addressing those needs.
'This is just the start of something much bigger,' said Christian Michalik, superintendent of the division encompassing St. Boniface, River Park South and surrounding communities.
The administrative team is planning to make on-site child-care coverage available to kindergarten-to-Grade 6 students to sandwich every school day before the end of 2027.
The superintendent said his hope is the daily fee, which will recover staffing, snack and other costs, can be reduced in future. The province has not agreed to subsidize the program at present, he noted.
Tricia Bailey Sauvé, who had been a divisional vice-principal, was tapped to oversee the transition from a patchwork of individual school-run child-care programs to a division-wide strategy.
The BLAST manager is working on a centralized payment structure, family handbook, code of conduct and specific procedures ahead of back-to-school season.
'Our goal is to support families and to create a safe, fun, and inclusive environment,' Bailey Sauvé wrote in a recent memo to parents who have long competed for limited spots at private and school-run daycares.
Daily programming is anticipated to take place indoors and outdoors with play-based learning and socialization as the top priorities. It will not be available on holidays or when schools are closed for teacher professional development.
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The blueprint allows private daycares located in schools to continue operating as usual.
The division is hiring part-time program assistants and co-ordinators — roles that the superintendent said he anticipates will be filled by support staff, as well as university and high school students — for BLAST. The posted hourly wages are $16.75 and $21.55, respectively.
This is the natural next step to tackle a chronic shortage of child-care spaces and lengthy waitlists in the division after its implementation of full-day kindergarten, Michalik said.
The division's 30 elementary schools began offering what's often dubbed 'FDK' in 2024-25. The expansion cost approximately $2.6 million.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie MacintoshEducation reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.
Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.
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