YMCA Ending After-School Program

(Editor's note: This article was updated Thursday at 12:15 p.m. with comments from Diana Ganz.)

The Melrose YMCA will not offer its after-school program this coming school year and instead focus on new programs for kids that aren't available elsewhere in the city.

Bruce Macdonald, executive director of the Greater Lynn YMCA — which manages the Melrose YMCA through an agreement formalized earlier this year — said that the primary reason for ending the Melrose after-school program is the success of Education Stations, the Melrose Public Schools' after-school program that is offered in each elementary school during the school year.

"We want to support them (Education Stations), we don't want to compete with them," Macdonald said. "Frankly, our attendance is down because that program is so accessible ... it's silly to offer two programs when the city is doing a good job with what they have."

The YMCA's summer programs will continue, as will its Stoneham school-age after-school program, Macdonald said.

During the school year, instead of offering a program that directly competes with Education Stations, Macdonald said the YMCA will offer specialty programs for kids after-school, adding that a slew of new programs are planned for this fall.

"Diana [Ganz, Melrose YMCA branch director] is working on a brochure with all kinds of programs we didn't offer before," he said. "We still have the pool and gymnastics center and we can do things like that with the kids ... right now, the after-school need is being met by the school system. It's really a reaction to what the community needs are and that's what I believe the role of the Y is."

Ganz said the YMCA is still in the process of completing its line-up of fall programs, which is focused on "being more family-friendly and having a significant amount of enrichment programs for all ages." The morning hours will feature preschool classes, from learning the alphabet through arts and crafts and music classes, to dance and cooking classes.

Older children programs will feature a host of health, fitness and wellness programs through sports and other activities, Ganz said, along with arts classes such as music and drama. Also, the YMCA plans to host monthly family events — free to YMCA members and open to non-members for a small fee of $5-10 — a Halloween event and "parent nights out," where the YMCA provides inexpensive babysitting that allows parents to enjoy a date night or get some holiday shopping done.

"We have a lot going on; we're also hopefully collaborating more with the middle school," she said. "I had a great meeting with the middle school PTO ... we are not necessarily offering our afterschool program anymore, but still serving that population of the community in other ways."