Gilpin families need help: Without after-school care, families tell board, they will have to move from area
Burnaby Now
Nic Price
November 29, 2008

Families are being forced out of Gilpin Elementary School due to a lack of out-of-school care, according to parents who took their case to the Burnaby school board meeting...

The Gilpin Out-of-School Care Committee said they represent more than 40 families, or around a quarter of the school population, who need the service….

Simone Gouveia, who sits on both the committee and the Gilpin parent advisory council, said it is very stressful for parents to make arrangements for child care.

In some cases, three or four families are sharing a nanny. Other parents are changing their shifts to work at different times so they have the early morning and evening covered, and others are relying on grandparents, neighbours and friends.

"A lot of people, like myself, have chosen not to go back to work this year because I have no out-of-school care," Gouveia said.  "And other families are constantly leaving. We have four or five families or more leaving every year because it's too stressful."

Of 40 schools in the Burnaby district, the committee said Gilpin is one of only three without out-of-school services either at the school or in the community….

The committee, which formed shortly after, said enrolment at Gilpin has been steadily declining since the closure to the current level of 212 students.

During two years of work on the issue, the committee has found a number of non-profit agencies willing to offer the service for Gilpin, but all require a five-year guarantee of a suitable space.  The committee canvassed all possible sites in the Gilpin region but found nothing financially feasible.

As a short-term solution for the next two years, the committee proposes using a portable at Gilpin or sharing Douglas Road's service. In the long-term, the committee wants a child-care hub established at Burnaby Central….

School board chair Kathy Corrigan said the board had been working hard on the issue, but providing out-of-school care was not in the board's mandate and it received no funding to facilitate it.  "It's very frustrating for us as well. ... We don't receive any funding dollars, and what we try to do is work with communities (for a solution)," she said.

…the board will investigate the issue and passed a motion to forward the information on to the youth and community services committee and the buildings and grounds committee for further analysis. …Corrigan encouraged the committee to pressure the provincial government for funding for out-of-school care….