NORTH PROVIDENCE — Less than six months after deciding to provide full-day kindergarten classes in all of the town’s public elementary schools, officials are giving serious thought to launching a before- and afterschool program in all of those schools next fall.

School Committee member Stephen Palmieri said he was certain the program will be in place next September, though the details are yet to be worked out.

“I don’t have any numbers, but just from word of mouth I know a lot of parents want this,” Palmieri said. Many, he said, don’t pursue full-time employment “because they know that they would have to leave work around 2:30 p.m. to make sure they will be ready when their child gets out of school at 3.”

Palmieri is heading up a three-member committee — including Gina Picard and Tami Leva, victors in the School Committee election who will take their seats next month — that is studying how to establish the program.

By the next School Committee meeting, on Dec. 17, he said, the study panel expects to get estimates on how much it would cost to hire a contractor to run the program, for which participating parents would be charged fees.

“I’m not opposed to looking into what they would charge, but I’m inclined to think it would cost us less if we did it ourselves,” Palmieri said. “We want to keep the prices as low as possible so it will be affordable to parents.”

But, he added, such a program could generate revenue for the School Department.

“I know there are childcare centers and YMCAs that do this thing after school. I’m sure a lot of parents would sign up their children for our program if it was available because they wouldn’t have to worry about their child taking a bus to some other place. They would already be right there.”

If the department runs the program itself, he said, it could seek to staff it with teacher’s aides.

He said he did not think it would need teachers to provide instruction. “I think the kids will have had enough school during the day, so I don’t think we should burden them with more of that,” he said.

“But the children could use the time to do their homework, or we could do some other event. We could have students from Rhode Island College come in and lead classes in dance or karate.

“Many of the private schools do this kind of thing, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work here.”

Palmieri envisions a program that would allow parents to drop off their children as early as 7 a.m., two hours before the class day begins, and to pick up them up at 5:30 p.m., 90 minutes after it ends.

rdujardi@projo.com