Area after-school program still going strong
Monday, November 21, 2005 12:13 PM PST
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| Jessica Keller | Argus Observer
Ontario High School freshman Adriana Rodriguez (from left), Balet Folklorico instructor Efrain Rivas and OHS graduate Ivan Carrillo practice a dance after school Friday at Ontario Middle School. Balet Folklorico is one of the classes offered as part of OMS's after school program. |
JESSICA KELLER ARGUS OBSERVER
ONTARIO
This year marks the fifth year the Ontario Middle School after school and summer programs have been in place, and middle schoolers and staff are busier than ever with activities.
“We really have a lot going on,” OMS afterschool program director Suzie Douglas-Sap said.
Future funding, however, is always a priority for Douglas-Sap and others involved in after school and special programs at the middle school. Douglas-Sap also said community support is always needed to keep the programs in place for the children.
The three year, $280,000 grant through the Ford Family Foundation, which subsidized a variety of things - such as the OMS Young Ambassadors leadership program and parent education and training programs - is up at the end of this year. Douglas-Sap said that grant was very helpful because it allowed the school to examine what programs would work at the middle school.
Douglas-Sap said the three-year federal grant the middle school recently received to promote alcohol prevention and education at the middle school is currently helping much of the after school and summer programs continue.
One of the things the program needs at this point, as one round of after school program classes ends for the season, is volunteers to teach classes on any number subjects or interests, Douglas-Sap said, anything from photography to crocheting.
“We really need people who are willing to stop up and do that because there are always kids waiting to do that activity after school,” she said.
As of last May, the middle school had about 1,100 participants in the after school programs in the four years since it has been in place, Douglas-Sap said.
“So that's tremendous because that means at some time during their middle school experience, each kid participated in something,” Douglas-Sap said.
Continued funding for the OMS after school and summer programs is always a concern for staff, Douglas-Sap said, even if there is funding present.
“You know that's always in the back of your mind,” Douglas-Sap said. “You have to start thinking what are you going to do from the get-go.”
She said one of the misconceptions is if there is grant funding then all of the funding needs are set, when actually grants don't necessarily cover all the costs associated with running programs. Douglas-Sap also said grants only last for a certain length of time before they run out.
Grants are getting more difficult to secure, Xochitl Fuhriman-Ebert, director of special projects at OMS and grant program coordinator, said. Fuhriman-Ebert said there has been a reduction of federal grants for after school programs and it is not unlikely to have only 70 grants awarded with more than 200 to 300 applicants vying for them.
“You'd just as soon spend the same time to write a $10,000 grant as a $110,000 or $300,000 grant,” Fuhriman-Ebert said, adding the larger grants are even more competitive and hard to secure. “But once you get it, man, they're worth it,” she said, adding the federal level seed grants are often for a greater amount for a longer period of time - such as the recent three-year, $900,000 alcohol abuse prevention grant OMS received. Douglas-Sap said that's what officials think it takes to set up a program at a school and let it develop.
Once that seed money is spent, however, the school must take over funding the programs - usually through program fees. Douglas-Sap said, however, it is difficult for schools in rural communities such as Ontario to charge high fees because most of the childrens parents cannot afford to pay $250 a year to participate.
Which is why, Douglas-Sap said, community involvement is so important. “We have a lot coming up,” Douglas-Sap said. “We have a lot of ways for people to get involved.”
No Dhimmi wrote on Aug 14, 2009 9:38 PM:
And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "