TULSA, Okla. — As districts prepare for the return to learn, some elementary schools in the Broken Arrow district may not be able to offer childcare.
Two schools that serve more than 100 students as part of the before and after care program are seeing serious staffing shortages. If the district does not fill those positions, parents may be forced to find childcare arrangements on short notice.
“Our Before and After Care Programs give kids a safe place to go," Tara Thompson, spokeswoman for Broken Arrow Public Schools said.
With just days until the school year starts, Broken Arrow Public Schools is scrambling to find more workers for the Before and After School Care Program. Rosewood Elementary and Leisure Park are both facing a shortage of care providers for that program.
“We sent out a communication this week to the parents of those schools letting them know we’re having trouble filling those positions, we’re still interviewing, we’re still working very hard to fill them, but we might not be able to start the year with childcare services at those buildings,” Thompson explained.
Students are set to hit the classroom again on August 24th. Although the district is looking to hire more than a dozen teachers, the five vacant care provider positions are causing leaders to scramble.
“If we’re not able to fill the positions that we currently have open in B&A connections, as many as 150 students could be without childcare options and that affects the parents too,” Thompson said.
The district said they're working to hire people for those spots, joining a long list of other districts holding job fairs to fill a critical need for workers.
“We didn’t have as many people as we had hoped to see, but people can still go online to the website to see the job openings and they can fill out the application online,” Thompson said.
Thompson said they will notify parents next week if they have the staffing to continue the B&A program or if those parents will have to find different options for their children.
If you would like to apply, you can visit their website by clicking here.
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