Opinion: Natomas School Board’s Decision Crucial to Working Families

BY ELENA QUINTERO
SPECIAL TO THE NATOMAS BUZZ

Elena Quintero is currently the PTA President at H. Allen Hight Elementary, volunteered as PTSA/PTO president at both Inderkum High and Natomas Middle schools, and has served on the Natomas Unified Superintendent Parent Advisory Panel since 2008.

The Natomas Unified School District will hold a special school board meeting this afternoon to consider whether to support a contract which would provide childcare and day camp options through partnerships with The Center and the city of Sacramento’s 4th R Child Care Center. Although limited, the district says these partnerships will “assist some of the highest-needs students and families during distance learning.”

4th R provided services at Natomas schools before the pandemic, but has not been allowed to use school sites since mid-March when campuses closed. Summer care options were taken away by the district because they refused to communicate with these existing partners — or any potential partners. At the July 14 school board meeting, Superintendent Chris Evans said that the district could not communicate to families about after-school programs until an agreement was reached with teachers about what the school day will look like. But working parents needed care for their children, regardless of the type of learning that would take place in the fall.

As a result, working families scrambled to find full-time care over the summer and continued to panic when daycare had not been discussed by school officials by the end of July. Parents were faced with making life-changing decisions for the fall — leaving their child home with vulnerable and technologically-challenged elders, quitting their jobs or reducing work hours and sacrificing wages and benefits to stay home, leaving little ones with barely-old-enough siblings, and so on.

Why was there not a discussion about care in the spring or early summer, regardless of what learning would look like in the fall? Why was there no survey to ask parents how the closure affected families, if they needed care, and how the district could help? So much anxiety and stress could have been avoided if the district had taken these steps earlier. “Better late than never” is not good enough. Child care programming should have been one of the first things addressed months ago, as it affected care for nearly 1,000 students and the financial well-being of their families.

4th R has proven to be versatile, particularly in recent years, when the district updated their security measures. 4th R staff are eager to help families during this pandemic, including learning the various distance learning platforms so they can help students get online with their teachers — if 4th R is allowed to use school sites again. 4th R can help facilitate family registration with Child Action, a non-profit organization which provides financial assistance for child care to eligible families. And, the city even has a portable program with another school district, which would allow 4th R to expand its services and serve more children in Natomas. The district would only need to take on the infrastructure costs.

Whether you need child care for yourself or not, there are families who desperately need programs like 4th R and The Center during this pandemic. Reach out to Natomas Unified School District board members before the 4:30 p.m. special board meeting to let them know how important it is to support the contract for childcare and day camp.

Elena Quintero is currently the PTA President at H. Allen Hight Elementary, volunteered as PTSA/PTO president at both Inderkum High and Natomas Middle schools, and has served on the Natomas Unified Superintendent Parent Advisory Panel since 2008. Elena was on the founding board and a coach for North Natomas Little League in 2004 and developed youth and park programs for Councilmember Angelique Ashby. Elena is a single mother of a 9-year-old daughter who attends Hight, a 24-year-old son who graduated from Inderkum and serves abroad in the Air Force, and proud grandmother of two.

NUSD Board Meetings are live-streamed and recorded, and available for viewing at https://natomasunified.org/board-of-trustees/videos/. Members of the public are encouraged to submit public comments via eComment through email at [email protected]. If you are unable to submit a public comment via eComment, please call Natomas Unified’s Constituent and Customer Services prior to 12:00 p.m. on August 5, 2020 for assistance.