Funding for free after-school programs evaporates

If it weren’t for the free after-school program offered at Ness Elementary School, Jade and Levi Shell would likely go home at the end of the day to an empty house.

Instead, Jade, a fourth-grader, and Levi, a second-grader, go four days a week to the school library, where they get a healthy snack, do homework and arts and crafts, read, and make new friends.

“I know they are safe; I know where they are,” said their mother, Dee Shell, who is single, attends college full-time and works part-time. “I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to rush to get home. It’s a godsend.”

Next fall, Shell and the parents of about 70 other at-risk children in the West Valley School District could be forced to look elsewhere for after-school care when the grant money used to pay for the program runs out.

The district applied for and received a federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Center grant four years ago to pay for the after-school program.

The grant was designed to create before- and after-school programs in schools in low-income neighborhoods.

West Valley received $1.25 million to finance activities at Ness, Orchard Center and Seth Woodard elementary schools.

Both Orchard Center and Ness have a free and reduced lunch rate of 60 percent or more.

Spokane Public Schools used the same grant money to fund the district’s HUBS program, an extended-day program that served over 4,000 children. Grant money ran out in 2002.

In 2000 the Central Valley and East Valley school districts received $1.9 million to collaborate on the Success Academy, serving 600 kids. Students stayed after school for homework clubs, science experiments and writing workshops. The grant money ran out last year.

School districts can reapply for a second 21st Century grant, but the grants are now issued by the state, grant dollars are fewer and the competition stiff.

The focus of the grant has also shifted slightly under the No Child Left Behind Act. The program is now more about providing expanded academic opportunities at low-performing schools with children failing state standardized tests.

“The president’s budget has gotten smaller and smaller, so there’s not much to go around,” said Peggy Cannon, director of West Valley’s programs.

“I think if we can we will apply for additional funds, but I’m not terribly optimistic.”

The grant was only meant to last three years, but like Central Valley, West Valley has been able to operate a fourth year on leftover funds of about $75,000.

However, this year the entire program at Seth Woodard was cut, and programs at Ness and Orchard Center have gone from being offered five days a week both before and after school, to four days a week, after school only.

The district also agreed to pick up the cost of transporting students home.

“It’s pretty bare-bones,” Cannon said. “The saving grace is that we had supplies left over from the first three years.”

Also cut were events the district organized for families on Saturdays, and family nights held once a month at the school made possible through the funds.

“The focus was to get parents that are uncomfortable, and perhaps haven’t had a real positive experience, into the schools in a nonthreatening environment,” Cannon said.

“It was a time that kids and parents could work together.”

The programs have been so popular there has been a waiting list to get in.

“It really makes kids feel good about school,” said Brian Hickman, the site coordinator at Ness. “And that’s what’s it’s all about.”

There are other programs parents could use for before- and after-school activities, such as the YMCA, Cannon said. Those programs are available on a sliding scale based on a parent’s income.

“Our program was free, and if you have a parent with three kids, even a sliding scale is still out of reach,” Cannon said.

Through the grant, districts were encouraged to try and build relationships with community agencies to sustain the programs, Cannon said. But what most districts found was an economy that could not support such a partnership with organizations already strapped for cash.

“When we first started in 2000, there were a lot of foundations that were willing to fund additional grants for us,” said Mary Jo Buckingham, director of special programs for Central Valley. “But the funds are just not there. We could see they were struggling with their own sustainability.”

Cannon agrees. “The monies in lots of organizations have dried up,” Cannon said.

Cannon said she stills hopes the district will be able to find a partnership, or a solution to keep part of the program going.

“We have to have those conversations yet. In the meantime, we’re looking at lots of different ideas,” Cannon said.

“It might look a lot different (next year), but we hope it will still be there.”