Teachers and staff at Frederick Douglass High School have been given free daycare through the Teaching and Learning Program that is run by students, which has saved parents a great amount of money.
According to the Tootris News and Education Center, the average hourly payment for toddler childcare in Lexington, Kentucky, is $16.06. With the Teaching and Learning Program at Douglass, where students take over the job of babysitting after school, teachers can save up to $4.02 for every 15 minutes the students are there daily, and $20.08 a week.
Teachers/parents at Douglass expresses her gratitude for the program.
“Oh my gosh, it’s absolutely wonderful because…my kids get finished at Liberty, and they get on a bus, and they come straight here,” says Nicole Bersagila, “…I don’t have to pay for after-school childcare, I don’t have to go to Liberty and get them…”
This program has also allowed students to receive hands-on experience through taking care of the teachers’ kids. Leighton Schilling is one of these students who participates in this program.
“When the kids come in, we play with them, we give them hand sanitizer and snacks…It’s only like 10, 15 minutes at most.” States Schilling.
Although the so-called “pony party” only lasts a couple of minutes at the end of class, it creates a big impact on teacher parents, both through convenience and saving money.
“The Douglass student program, or what we call the Pony Party, is free,” Principal Lester Diaz begins, “I don’t have to find childcare for my kid or leave school early and not be able to do my job to the fullest…”
Overall, the staff members who balance between teaching and parenting continue to express their gratitude to all of these students and look forward to continuing this program for years to come.
Diaz ends with, “And it is special to see my students doing a service for my kids and my teachers’ kids. So it really gives me a lot of positive vibes, energy, and feelings about the things that we’re doing as a community of people.”