South Kent News

The Grandville Public Schools Board of Education voted on changes to the district's Treehouse Daycare program that is available for kids ages 3-5, the board's March 20 meeting.

Treehouse Director Julie Scott gave an update to the board, seeking to raise the rate for before school childcare to match the after-school rates, a $5 increase for most locations. The Treehouse program is a licensed daycare that offers an all-day program for children ages 3-5 at the Grandville Early Learning Center, where they receive basic educational instruction, such as colors, shapes, letters and numbers. Treehouse also has before and after school programs at Central Elementary, Century Park Learning Center, Grand View Elementary and South Elementary.

"It is such high-quality care. And I think it's awesome what you're doing," Trustee Barb Palmer told Scott. "I think this is absolutely appropriate as far as it's such a minimal increase, and you'll know soon enough when your grandson is going in through daycare, it is extremely hard to find quality daycare for families who are doing the before and after consistently year round."

There were no changes to the rates for before and after school care, although Scott said she would like to require at least three days a week enrollment to increase consistency. For the summer program, Treehouse requires at least three days a week of enrollment, and the board voted to increase the five-day rate by $10, keeping the three and four-day rates the same. The board approved all changes as suggested.

Treehouse Daycare remains open during weather conditions that cancel normal school days, fog delays, snow days... etc., and only close if there is a loss of heat or power, in which cases parents are notified, Scott said. They also have a summer program, Kids Klub, which has some relaxed educational programming for students through sixth grade and features field trips and events. Scott said they have between 300-400 students year-round, and enrollment was balanced out by those children of teachers who don't need to attend in summer, which evens out by kids who only come for summer care due to parents’ jobs. The program has a waitlist for families looking to get, since they don't have enough staff to meet demand, Scott said.