Park and Rec renews call for after-school working group, advances field study

SUDBURY -- July 8, 2024, Sudbury Park and Rec presses Select Board on after-school care and absorbs loss of preschool license. The commission used its July 8 meeting to renew its call for a town manager-led working group on after-school care after the Select Board's May 28 discussion stalled without action. Select Board liaison Lisa Kouchakdjian, who said she had withdrawn a motion to form a subcommittee for lack of support, told members she had independently contacted the Belmont After School Enrichment Collaborative and the Metro West YMCA, whose director described a lease-and-staff model. Member Mara Huston said the "squeaky wheel gets the oil" and asked Kouchakdjian to carry the working-group request and an invitation for the parent group back to the board. Recreation Director Dennis Mannone disclosed the long-running T2s preschool program will not run this fall because the building inspector has determined the program must be state-licensed for children 2.9 and younger, a change Mannone tied to drainage work that exposed egress gaps in the new Fairbank Community Center. The commission also corrected its May minutes to show Park and Recreation comprises 0.21 percent, not 2.1 percent, of the town budget.