Winthrop schools to consider expanding space for FKO program

The Winthrop School Committee is going to take a closer look at seeing if there is additional space in the public schools to house the For Kids Only (FKO) afterschool program.

While the FKO program is not a public schools program, the Winthrop schools have worked closely with FKO over the past decades in their mission to provide afterschool care for Winthrop students.

At last week’s school committee meeting, FKO Executive Director Briana Flannery talked about the relationship with the Winthrop schools and the growing needs of FKO.

“I just wanted to say thank you for our partnership over the years and always sharing space with us through agreements over the years,” said Flannery. “We currently are at the Gorman-Fort Banks School; we also have our facility … at 233 (Winthrop St.). We’ve been operating at the Gorman-Fort Banks with an enrollment of between 55 and 60 children a day.”

But Flannery said the need in the community for afterschool care is much greater than before.

“Families, I think, are going back to work and more families are in need of care here, and looking ahead, we have more families in need of programming,” said Flannery.

Flannery said she has talked with Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard about utilizing more space in the school and what that would look like for FKO and the district.

“We are already maxing out our facility (on Winthrop Street), so it’s not like we can serve more kids there,” said Flannery. “I think families want to stay inside the school that the kids love and not get on a school bus and have to leave. So we are just looking to have a conversation about opportunities in that school building, and most importantly, to be able to continue partnering and doing whatever we can to expand learning and support families here in town.”

Howard said she has been working with FKO over the past decade, noting that there was no afterschool programming during the Covid pandemic. Otherwise, she said the schools and FKO have been working with a rental agreement that can fluctuate based on the amount of extra custodial care needed in the building.

Howard said there have been discussions with the school committee before about those rental rates and how they are determined.

“At this point in time, it would be my suggestion that buildings and grounds (subcommittee) take a look at the current agreement, get some information from me and the custodial staff around building use,” said Howard.

The superintendent said there are limitations for the use of the school buildings given the needs of the school system and the hours they are open. Howard said there has been talk about the use of classroom space for FKO in the past, but that it could be tricky to configure because of teacher needs to prepare their classrooms for the next day.

“Then, there are always the custodial cleaning issues,” said Howard. “Gorman-Fort Banks is not a new building and there are quite a bit of building level issues that have been appearing to keep up with, so they have some input into it. They are also the people who do the extra work, so they enjoy the overtime component that comes with it.”