With the Right at School program coming to a close just one year into its operations, working parents with children at Niverville Elementary once again find themselves scrambling for before- and after-school care for the upcoming year.
Semira Getachew was one of those parents. But instead of looking elsewhere for a new option, she decided to start her own. Her homespun business, M&A Before and After School, sprouted from her own childcare needs and is a response to other parents who may find themselves in the same predicament.
“When my son started school here… we were struggling to find before- and after-school care because [my husband and I both] work in the city,” says Getachew. “It’s really hard to live here and work in the city.”
Last year’s Right at School program was the answer to the problem, at least in part, but she’s not surprised to hear that the program didn’t last.
“I think the main concern parents had [with Right at School was the before [school care],” says Getachew. “That was not provided… They were awesome, but [many] parents work in the city and they need both before and after care.”
When she learned about Right at School’s decision to pull their operation out of town, she wasted no time in contacting the Hanover School Division and requesting space to run her own program. From there, she developed a website and put a call out to parents on Facebook.
“I’m a very big risktaker and I took the risks that I usually do,” she says. “When I first launched my website…I had two parents that registered and that motivated me, and I’m like, ‘Okay, two believe in me and now I’m going to go and find staff.’”
This time, she sent out a Facebook ad. The staff, she says, were surprisingly easy to find and they all live locally.
In total, five staffers have been hired. Getachew now has full-time and part-time employees with childcare certification, as well as a casual employee who’s working to obtain her certification. The childcare team is rounded off by a high school student and Getachew herself, who will be quitting her full-time job to focus on the new endeavour.
“I’m actually going to have more staff than I need, just for the safety, and that way the staff are not stressed and the kids can have fun,” she says.
Getachew feels her own work experience helped her come to this decision quickly. For the past seven years, she’s been a senior staff worker for a company affiliated with Child and Family Services. In her role, she helps children who have experienced sexual exploitation and other childhood traumas. She’s also a certified healthcare aide and has taken courses in daycare management.
According to provincial guidelines, M&A will be allowed to provide care for up to 30 children. After that, Getachew says new children will go on a waiting list, with preferential treatment going to kids already in the program and to siblings of those kids.
“We’re going to be providing healthy snacks before and after school, so I will be the first one to get there to prepare things,” Getachew says. “We have arts and crafts planned for the kids, and my goal for after school is to help them with homework. One of my full-time staff [will soon have her teaching degree].”
She values the importance of regular open communication with parents to determine each individual child’s educational struggles in order to apply a personalized approach to tutoring. She and her staff will work together to re-evaluate the program regularly, considering all feedback from parents and kids.
“If the staff are involved and the parents are involved, then the kids succeed,” she adds. “That’s my main goal.”
Come the start of the new school year, parents with enrolled children will be able to drop off their kids as early as 7:00 a.m. and pick them up as late as 6:00 p.m., although Getachew hopes to provide some flexibility on pickup time for parents who are running late. Approval will need to come from the school division for that.
Ideally, her goal is to become a licensed before- and after-school care facilitator. But with paperwork that takes about six months to complete, she’s run out of time for the coming year. Getachew assures parents that she’ll be licensed by the time the 2020 school year rolls around.
In the meantime, M&A will run as an unlicensed daycare, but the fee structure will be based on provincial guidelines for licensed care centres. Parents will be able to sign their kids up for three, four, or five days per week and also choose only-morning or only-afternoon care.
“I want to give as many options to parents [as I can], and that way they can save money and get the care they need at the right price,” Getachew says. “Not too expensive.”
Getachew is excited for the opportunities this new business will mean for her own family, as well as her long-time aspiration to open her own daycare business.
“I’ll be close to home and I’ll be more active with my kids,” she says.
She and her husband Glenford moved to Niverville three years ago after attending the Olde Tyme Country Fair.
“We said, ‘My gosh, this town is really for us,’ because we’re quiet people and… we always wanted to live outside of the city,” Getachew recalls. “It’s been really good. We really love it here. I don’t think we’ll ever move back to the city.”
She’s looking forward to being at home during the day with her three-year-old daughter Aaliyah and providing top-notch care through the M&A program for her nine-year-old son Malik.
“I’m hoping that parents put their trust in me,” Getachew says of her new business plan. “Let’s do this together this year, and then next year I will push until I’m licenced and then those who want to be subsidized are able to apply.”
