Schoolmates registration for 23-24 school year opens July 19
Published July 13, 2023
Schoolmates registration for the coming school year opens 6pm on Wednesday, July 19th. Starting this fall, Piedmont Recreation’s popular play-based afterschool care program will have increased capacity and new, flexible scheduling options to better accommodate the diverse needs of Piedmont families.
This year’s program offers two scheduling choices. “Block Booking” provides a full year of traditional, full afternoon care, while a new “Flexi-Care” option offers families with shifting needs to register in hourly increments, paying only for the care they need with an opportunity to adjust schedules each month, pending available space. A new program, “Camp Kaleidoscope,” offers expanded care options to accommodate early dismissal for grades K-3 during the first few weeks of school.
Registration for Schoolmates, Minimates, and Camp Kaleidoscope will take place entirely online via Community Pass.
Flexible care options and expanded capacity designed to better accommodate needs of Piedmont families
The new options were spurred in part by community feedback received in the City’s recent afterschool care community survey, which attracted over 200 responses. Two themes stood out – the need to accommodate more students to alleviate the strain on waitlisted families and the need for more flexible care. In addition to new scheduling options, the Recreation Department is expanding program capacity by adding staff at each site and increasing child to staff ratios.
A summary of the different options is provided below. Detailed information on program dates, registration, scheduling options, tuition, withdrawals, adjustments, and waitlists is available at piedmont.ca.gov/schoolmates.
Block Booking
The Schoolmates “Block Booking” option offers predetermined time slots for families needing consistent weekly care throughout the year:
- Register once for the full school year (program runs September 5-May 24)
- Sign up by day of the week for full afternoon care (3-6pm most weekdays, 1:45-6pm on Wednesdays)
- Waitlist available
Tuition for Schoolmates Block Booking is $11.20/hour, billed monthly.
Flexi-Care
The new Schoolmates Konnex “Flexi-Care” offers registration in hourly increments, allowing families to select only the days and times they need:
- Separate enrollment periods for fall (September 5-December 21) and spring (January 8-May 24)
- Option to adjust schedule monthly, pending availability
- No waitlist
Tuition for Schoolmates Flexi-Care is $13.40/hour, billed monthly.
Camp Kaleidoscope
Another new offering this year, Camp Kaleidoscope, provides expanded care availability during the first few weeks of school, when demand is the highest. Camp Kaleidoscope offers the best of both worlds: weekly flexibility and a rotation of fun enrichment activities ranging from sports and scavenger hunts to cooking and arts & crafts.
Camp Kaleidoscope runs from 2-6pm August 14-September 1st. There are still spots available at the Beach & Havens locations.
Minimates
The Minimates program offers PUSD transitional kindergarten (TK) students opportunities to learn, grow, and have fun with age-appropriate games, crafts, and sports led by the Recreation Department’s experienced Schoolmates staff.
- Register once for the full school year (program runs August 14-May 24)
- Sign up by day of the week for full morning (8:30am-TK class start) or full afternoon (TK class release-3pm) care
- Waitlist available
Tuition for Minimates is $11.20/hour, billed monthly.
Efforts to improve afterschool childcare options continue
These new programming options are the result of a nearly yearlong effort to improve, expand, and better align overall afterschool care offerings for Piedmont families by the Recreation Department and a subcommittee of the Recreation Commission, consisting of Commissioners Jenny Feinberg, Aamir Virani, Becca Posamentier, working in partnership with Recreation Supervisor Katrina Morris.
As the new school year begins, Recreation staff and the Schoolmates subcommittee will continue their work to understand the needs of Piedmont families and evaluate how the City’s programming can best accommodate demand.
For questions about Schoolmates enrollment, contact the Recreation Department office at (510) 420-3070.