Before- and after-school programs will stay at Royalton-Hartland Elementary

Thomas Tedesco, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.
·3 min read

May 7—GASPORT — A local childcare provider and a church are stepping up to fill a pending void in before- and after-school programming for students at Royalton-Hartland Elementary School.

Following a previous announcement by the district that it would no longer provide its own before- and after-school programs, Little Critters Childcare and Hartland Bible Church each plan to host programming of their own for elementary students. Parents will have their choice of programs.

"We've had 30-plus kids in and out of the program every week for the entire school year. I really feel like they're not going to be in competition with one another, they're going to be paralleling one another. There is enough need to sustain both programs," superintendent Jill Heck said.

Kristen Totah, owner and operator of Little Critters Childcare, said after hearing concerns from several parents, she reached out to the district and subsequently applied for a license through the New York State Office of Children and Family Services to expand her childcare services to school-aged children.

"I'm already an established childcare provider," Totah said. "I live in the community and I know a lot of families over at Roy-Hart Elementary. A lot of the kids that I'm going to be having in the new program, I've had at one point when they were younger, which is pretty exciting."

Jon Goodwin, pastor of Hartland Bible Church, said he heard similar concerns from district parents and also hoped to put his congregation's familiarity with the community to use.

"We have a history of it already, running an after-school program a couple days a week for the junior-senior high school," Goodwin said. "What this was birthed out of for us was that we saw the need and wanted to meet it."

The YWCA of the Niagara Frontier previously ran before-and after-school programming at RHES. The district took over the program for the 2023-2024 school year after being informed by the YWCA that it would no longer be able to provide staffing and funding to host it at the school, according to Heck.

In March, the district announced that it would not host before- and after-school program next year, stating it does not have the staffing capacity and funding to sustain the program long-term.

"We put it out there on purpose in March because we knew that if we had six months time we could figure something out. Last year we didn't know there was a need until two weeks before school started," Heck said.

Totah's program, for Pre-K through fourth grade students, will take place at the elementary school from 6:30 to 8:45 a.m. and 3:15 to 5:30 p.m. on school days, for a yet-to-be determined fee.

Hartland Bible Church's program, for kindergarten through 4th grade students, will be held at the church, 8110 West Ave., from 7 to 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on school days, at no cost to parents.

Parents with questions are encouraged to contact Totah at 716-940-7108 or Goodwin at 716-425-2630.