Durham Public Schools parents meet to discuss shortage of after-school care

The Durham Public Schools Office of Community Education hosted a forum at 10 a.m. Monday and at 6 p.m. at the Minnie Forte-Brown Staff Development Center on Hillandale Road to address parents' concerns.

"We are right there with you," said DPS communications specialist Crystal Roberts. "We want just as badly to provide the services that they expect from Durham Public Schools.

"And so, we are working extremely hard to fill the slots that we need to fill with qualified staff so that these young children can be well taken care of after school."

The town hall discussions will provide families with an update Durham's efforts to improve afterschool care programs. The district is also seeking input from the community to help find better solutions.

Rachel Hollowell is a parent with two children who attend Durham Public Schools.

“We were on the waitlist last year and never moved on the waitlist, and we’re back again, having no idea how deep in we are,” Hollowell said.

Hollowell attended the Monday morning meeting. She said she wasn’t sure if DPS was doing enough to fix the issue.

“Afterschool has been stressful, I mean even before the pandemic,” Hollowell said. “Just not knowing what to do with them, the best place for them to be in.”

Hollowell and her husband both work.

“It’s a constant fight on who is going to take the brunt of it,” Hollowell said. “It seems like he actually takes more of a load than myself at times."

Carol Terry is the parent of a 7-year-old student on the waiting list. She attended Monday morning's meeting as she considers going back to work.

"I was just trying to find out what’s going on with after school because I’m going to be possibly starting going back to work, and trying to make sure I have a place for him to be for a few hours after school," Terry said.

Terry said she thinks the district is doing the best it can to fill the void with its afterschool program.

Other parents told WRAL News that they hope more productive steps will be taken following Monday's town hall meetings.

On Monday, parents presented several solutions to DPS leaders, including:

Sarah Bill is a single mom who lives in Durham but works on a full-time basis in Raleigh. She has a second-grade student and a pre-Kindergarten student in DPS.

“I don’t have a solution if there is not afterschool care,” Bill said. “I am either going to have to find a place to cut the budget to afford a more expensive after-care program, which would mean like, less groceries."

Bill said she registered both of her children on the first day DPS opened enrollment.

“About a month later, I received an email saying both of them were on a waitlist for the after-school program,” Bill said. “I thought at first it was a mistake. I thought, ‘This just can’t be’ because I registered them the very first day. My check was deposited,” she said.

DPS struggles to hire staff, as after-school care waitlist tops 600 students

DPS requires a $35 registration fee and one monthly fee (20-day cycle). On its website, the district states families have a choice of getting put on the waitlist or getting refunded any unused fees.

Bill considered sending her kids to the afterschool care provided by the YMCA in downtown Durham, but she said it costs twice as much as the DPS program.

“That just doesn’t fit into a lot of people’s budgets,” Bill said.