LEBANON — A new child care provider has stepped up to take over the after-school programs in Lebanon’s elementary schools after the previous organization providing the service announced last month it would close its program, according to a news release.

Immersion Montessori School, based in West Lebanon, is set to take over the after-school programs at Mount Lebanon Elementary and Hanover Street School beginning April 18, following this week’s school vacation, according to the IMS’ website.

The news of IMS’ new Lebanon programs comes following the announcement last month that YMCA Camp Coniston would stop providing after-school care for about 100 children at elementary schools in Lebanon, Plainfield and New London due to staffing shortages and the absence of a qualified program director.

“When we learned that the YMCA program was ending, we immediately took action to secure an after-school program for our children and families,” Lebanon Superintendent Joanne Roberts said in a Monday email. “We are looking forward to partnering with IMS to offer afterschool child care for HSS and MLS children starting after April break.”

Meanwhile, Crystal Munsell, who has a daughter in kindergarten at Plainfield Elementary School, said school officials there told parents that they are working with the Boys and Girls Club to provide an after-school program at the school and hope to have it in place by the week of April 25.

“Nothing has been confirmed yet,” Munsell said in a Facebook message.

Efforts to reach Winfried Feneberg, superintendent of the Kearsarge School District that includes the Kearsarge Elementary School at New London, were unsuccessful on Monday. Feneberg told the Valley News last month that the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central New Hampshire had recently opened a new location at the New London First Baptist Church.

The IMS programs in Lebanon elementary schools are to run from 3:15 – 6 p.m., Monday through Friday through the end of the school year. Tuition for the 5-day program is $350/month.

IMS’s Montessori-inspired program is based on a curriculum that emphasizes foreign language acquisition, diversity, nature exploration, movement-based learning and hands-on learning experiences, the news release said.

More information about the program is available by calling or emailing IMS at (603) 322-3339 or info@uvims.com.

The enrollment form is online at: https://www.uvims.com/lsd.

Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.

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