Forest Park’s public elementary schools deserve more praise than criticism for the free care they have offered to the parents of essential workers during this damned pandemic. Since COVID-19 arrived, District 91 has paid the Community Center and the Forest Park Park District to watch over dozens of children unable to be home alone while attending remote learning classes.

Now, understandably, the park district needs to reclaim its staff and its facilities as it readies for a busier and more wide-open season of summer programs. The park district gave parents a month’s notice that its service would end after Spring Break.

We get that this situation is still hard-to-impossible for some families to navigate. Options are limited. But the school district has done its part as, perhaps, we limp toward the end of the school year.