August 13, 2014 at 4:50 p.m.
Committee recommends CHAMPS program continue at Central School
Committee recommends CHAMPS program continue at Central School
The district did not receive grant funds to support holding the program at Central this year - grant funds are available to hold the program at James Williams Middle School for middle school students and Crescent Elementary for all district elementary students - so the Operations and Strategic Planning Committee voted Monday to recommend board approval of a plan brought forward by Superintendent Kelli Jacobi to fund Central CHAMPS program using other means.
The CHAMPS (Community Helping Afterschool to Mold Positive Students) afterschool program offers students homework assistance during a program called Study Buddies as well as a full hour of academic enrichment programming called Power Hour. There are also times set aside for social interaction and activities.
"The grant for the CHAMPS program at Central, we did not get that for this year," Jacobi explained. "We still have the program at Crescent and we have it at the middle school that is funded through grant funds, so we worked on what we can do to approximate what we had knowing that we don't have the grant funds coming in."
Jacobi presented three options for the committee to consider.
Option one would have the district eliminate its intramural program and transfer the $25,000 set aside for that program into the CHAMPS account while also transferring $3,500 from the Aspirus Community Fitness Center budget into the program. The robotics intramural program would not be affected by the change, while the other activities would be incorporated into the CHAMPS program.
The district would also charge a fee to participate in the CHAMPS program. Families on paid lunch status would be charged $10 per day or $30 per week to participate, while families that qualify for reduced lunch prices would be charged $5 per day or $15 per week. Families that qualify for free lunches would not be charged.
"We're looking to combine (the intramural program and the CHAMPS program) so that those funds, the $25,000 that is set aside for intramurals, can be used for the CHAMPS program," Jacobi said.
"We also have $3,500 from the fitness center that can be used to help cover CHAMPS."
As for the student fees, Jacobi said there would need to be at least 30 paid students signed up for the program to cover the costs.
"Those fees are still less than other day care providers for that two-hour block in the afternoon," Jacobi said.
"We would need at least 30 paid students signed up, however."
Jacobi said the program averaged about 50 to 60 students during the 2013-'14 school year.
The second option would be to fund the program using the district's fund balance. Option three is to drop the program at Central.
Committee member David Holperin recommended the committee approve the first option but added that the board may have to consider funding the program using the fund balance if there aren't enough students participating to cover the shortfall.
"I do believe the CHAMPS program is an important part of the curriculum that the school offers as far as afterschool activities, so I'm fully supportive of CHAMPS," he said.
"I would lean toward doing (option one), but I would want to make sure that it's not dropped, so I would want to back it up with school funds, which means we would be combining option A and option B."
Fellow committee member Dennis O'Brien agreed.
"If people can have supervised activities and maybe develop lifelong interests, I think we should sustain that," he said.
Committee chairman Mike Roberts said the district needs to be careful that it's not starting a trend of funding what could be deemed day care. He said the committee should recommend approval of the first option and keep an eye on enrollment before deciding whether to fund the program using the fund balance.
"The question becomes, do we go down the road of funding, essentially, afterschool day care completely, and funding that on our own with taxpayer dollars," he said.
"I personally like the idea of using option A, at least for the first year and see how many students we have and how we're doing."
The committee voted unanimously to go with the first option but directed the administration to provide a status report in a few months.
The district is hoping the funding problem will be a one-year issue. Central Principal Tim Howell said he would apply for the grant again next year.
Maintenance of athletic equipment
In other business, the group discussed how to fund the maintenance of athletic equipment purchased years ago using grant funds.
In 2000, the district was awarded $921,000 over three years as part of the Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP). The grant funds were used for the purchase of new athletic equipment, including bicycles, cross country skis, snowshoes and other items used during physical education classes and before and after school activities. Now that the grant has run out, the district has to determine how to fund the maintenance of the equipment.
"We were lucky enough to benefit from the Carol M. White Physical Education Program grant for several years. We purchased a lot of equipment through that grant," Jacobi said.
"The grant no longer exists, so we now have to provide the funds to maintain the equipment."
Jacobi said the work could be funded using money left over from last year's Rhinelander High School, James Williams Middle School and Central Intermediate School budgets. Each school has $10,000 in its budget that was not used.
"The principals were frugal this year and were able to have savings in their school budgets. We would like that savings to be set aside for the maintenance of this equipment," Jacobi said.
"The other option for (those savings) would be to put them into the fund balance, so we're not spending more than we had budgeted last year, it's just that we're reallocating a piece of what was not spent for this purpose."
"(The equipment is) all in need of yearly maintenance," she added.
The committee unanimously approved using the funds to maintain the equipment. The issue will now go before the full board.
A second freshman volleyball team
The committee also approved the creation of a second freshman volleyball team.
More than 40 incoming freshman have signed up for volleyball and the district doesn't want to turn any athlete away.
"One of the goals set forth for the school district administration, (Activities Director) Brian (Paulson) and coaches was to work on increasing student participation. We have had great success with that," Jacobi said.
"We have increased volleyball numbers and we have found that we have so many volleyball players come out for this season that we need an additional volleyball coach."
Jacobi said the cost of the additional coach would be $1,859, but there are also additional costs associated with having a second team.
Those expenses include transportation, official and additional tournament fees. The total cost is estimated to be $6,000.
According to a memo from the administration to the committee, the money would have to come out of the general fund.
Roberts and O'Brien supported creating the second team and Holperin had left the meeting by the time the discussion took place.
"I think this is money well spent. We've said we want to increase participation in our extra-curricular activities," O'Brien said.
"If the board is going to say participation is the number one item, then the board needs to stand behind that and say when participation increases to the point that it's costing us more money, then we need to spend that money," Roberts added.
The full board must approve the creation of the second team.
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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