Buckeye Valley’s board of education Tuesday evening was asked by parents about the construction of the new elementary schools, heard about enrollment numbers and received a presentation from the YMCA for child care.

“We kind of already broke ground a little at East in terms of parking lots and construction,” said Andrew Miller, superintendent. “The bids just came back on the west property so I would hope in the next couple of weeks to see some activity out there. We’re worried about getting those bulldozers moving dirt.”

Earlier Miller had said it was taking longer to finalize the budget, making slight revisions to the plans and establishing phasing plans with students at the east property. The goal was to begin work by April 1.

Throughout the process the district has keep the community involved on the two new elementary schools.

In February the district signed an agreement with Future Think of Dublin to perform enrollment projections for the district.

Tracy Healy, president, said she and her company have worked across the country with districts that were small and growing and with large districts that were declining.

“I’ve worked with Olentangy yearly for the last 18 years looking at their enrollment numbers,” she said. “It’s a big piece of my work.”

Healy, said looking out 10 years the BV district could see a five-percent increase based on new housing developments, birth rates and kindergarten enrollment.

“Everything has been pretty steady,” Healy said. “This is the most likely projection.”

Miller asked if the reason for the district being put into a higher projection was because of the subdivisions being built quicker than anticipated.

“Yes, absolutely,” Healy said.

The district has been looking at options for the before and after School Aged Child Care (SACC) program. Board members were presented with the option of partnering with the YMCA to run the program.

“I started a conversation this past fall initially to look at some care that our current SACC couldn’t provide,” Miller said. “I think we have chance to accentuate some things.”

Miller said they could partner with the YMCA as early as next year.

“What a lot of people don’t know about the Y is we are the largest child care provider locally, statewide and nationally,” said Becky Ciminillo, YMCA Central Ohio executive director. “We have 54 before- and after-school programs right now in 10 districts.”

Ciminillo said the majority of their programs are in school cafeterias or multi-purposes rooms. The convenience is the children can just walk down the hall instead of leaving the building.

“We are licensed by the Ohio Job and Family Services,” Ciminillo said. “Many of our sites are Step Up to Quality, five-star rated.”