The first day of school is less than a week away, and as a boundary change takes effect for the first time, forcing a group of Niagara-on-the-Green students to switch schools, one family is still waiting for an answer to a question it raised almost a year ago: what happens after the final bell rings?
Niagara-on-the-Lake parent Katherine Kivlichan has two daughters — Sophia, entering Grade 4, and Paisley, entering junior kindergarten — who are moving from St. Davids Public School to Crossroads Public School this September, under a boundary change the school board approved last fall to ease overcrowding at St. Davids.
Paisley has yet to secure a spot in the after-school program at Crossroads. She already has after-school care at St. Davids, and emails provided to The Lake Report show the District School Board of Niagara told Kivlichan it arranged a bus with Niagara Student Transportation Services so she could continue attending the program after switching schools.
But Kivlichan says St. Davids principal Carl Glauser has since informed her the school board’s superintendent presiding over St. Davids, Darren VanHooydonk, has retired, providing little clarity and no further update on the arrangement.
The school board said in a statement to The Lake Report that it does not operate child-care programs in its schools. It said Niagara Region manages registration, while individual providers, such as the YMCA, manage their own waitlists and admissions.
The YMCA, Niagara Region, VanHooydonk, Glauser, Niagara Student Transportation Services and Crossroads principal Kate Fish did not respond to The Lake Report’s questions by publication time.
On the bus arrangement, the school board did not answer questions about whether it had been finalized, whether it will operate when school starts, who became responsible for following through on it after VanHooydonk’s departure or whether families were notified of its status.
It said staff are “working directly with the family regarding their specific circumstances” and encouraged families with questions about transportation arrangements to contact their home school.
In November last year, VanHooydonk told Kivlichan the school board had “already confirmed” a bus with Niagara Student Transportation Services to take students between Crossroads and their existing before- and after-school care at St. Davids.
“We are committed to the interim plan as long as necessary,” VanHooydonk wrote after encouraging Kivlichan to apply for a Crossroads space.
Kivlichan said she followed up in February but Glauser could provide little insight, telling her during a phone call that VanHooydonk retired and that he didn’t know what to tell her about the promised bus.
“He retired and nothing was done,” she said.
Kivlichan first wrote to the school board on Oct. 30, shortly after learning her children would be moving schools. She had put both daughters on the waitlist for the YMCA program at Crossroads, but told the board it was extremely long and asked for a reliable solution before September.
VanHooydonk told Kivlichan the programs are managed by Niagara Region and that the YMCA decides whether to expand the program at Crossroads. He said the school board could provide additional space and would continue expressing the need for growth.
Kivlichan said she loves the teachers and staff at St. Davids and doesn’t fault Glauser for the situation. She said she could accept the bus plan falling through, but not being left without an answer.
“It wasn’t handled properly,” she said. “If it couldn’t work out, it is what it is. But let me know.”
“Don’t write that email and say this is what we’re going to do.”
Kivlichan works as an account manager for a pharmaceutical company and travels to clinics across southern Ontario and, at times, northern Ontario, while her husband works shifts at Dofasco in Hamilton.
She and her husband have been rearranging their work schedules so somebody can be home when their children get off the school bus.
“We have to make a living, right?”
The delayed opening of another nearby program could be adding to demand for spaces at Crossroads.
At St. Michael Catholic Elementary School, Niagara Catholic says a new Way to Learn Daycare program is expected to begin offering before- and after-school care in mid-September, pending inspections by the Ministry of Education and Niagara Region Public Health. Full-day care is expected at a later date.
