Schools get grant funds for afterschool programs

About $2.1 million in federal funding is coming to the
Healdsburg, Windsor and Cloverdale unified school districts to help
expand afterschool and summer school programs.
The 21st Century Community Learning Center grant, which is
administered by the state, will help fund Cali Calmecac Language
Academy, Healdsburg Elementary, and Jefferson Elementary programs
for the next three years.
School officials worked closely with the Boys and Girls Club of
Central Sonoma County, Boys and Girls Club of Cloverdale,
Healdsburg Parks and Recreation Department, and Extended Childcare
of CCLA to qualify for the grant.
The grant required a designated non profit organization to
collaborate with other agencies and schools had to have a high
percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunches and
had to be in program improvement, according to Catherine Dickson
Schwarzbach of WUSD, who helped write the application for the
grant.
Meetings involving from eight to 20 people were held beginning
in late fall. Numerous 50 hour weeks were spent writing the
grant.
As many as 25 groups offered to provide services and matching
funds during the process, Dickson Schwarzbach said. The result was
$226,000 per year to help match federal funds.
“It was a really dynamic team,” Dickson Schwarzbach said. “It
really takes a village to raise a child. A lot of resources came
together to make this happen. We were going to have to cut
programs, but instead we get to continue and expand.”
The grant will provide services for 300 students at CCLA alone,
according to WUSD Superintendent Steve Herrington.
“This is sort of a godsend because it’s coming in to fill what’s
coming in from the state side,” Herrington said.
Herrington said WUSD began building a solid relationship with
the community when the district pushed for a $50 million school
construction bond approved by voters in February 2008.
“For the last three years we’ve maintained a network of
collaboration,” he said. “When we see these types of grants come
across our desk we pull the group together.”
The Boys and Girls Club of Central Sonoma County was the non
profit organization designated to bring other local agencies
together.
Nora Lomax, Windsor branch director for BGCCSC, said there was a
need to better serve students throughout the area. She said because
the Windsor club was on the east side of town, fewer students from
the west side of town were being provided for.
“We wanted to serve more students in Windsor and also a better
demographic of Windsor,” Lomax said, particularly referring to
students at CCLA.
“Right now our clubhouse has the capacity to serve 200 kids a
day; we serve 150,” she said. “There are a lot of kids in Windsor
that don’t have access to after school programs. We want to serve
every child who needs afterschool care.”
Annie Millar, HUSD Director of Curriculum and Instruction, was
one of several officials who worked on the grant request
consistently.
Millar was encouraged by the collaboration of the three
districts.
“One of the issues around public education is districts are on
their own, creating the wheel over and over, and this gets us
working as a team,” she said.
“I’m also a big fan of the community-school relationship,”
Millar added. “I’m very clear that none of us can do it alone and
together we can.”
Millar said roughly 100 kids in HUSD will receive additional
services because of the grant.
There was, however, a moment of pause for all involved when the
state mistakenly scored the application wrong in January and it
didn’t appear the districts would receive the grant money.
“We were devastated,” Lomax said. “I broke down and cried
because we had worked so hard.”
“It was a little nerve-racking there at the end,” Millar
said.
But state officials went back and acknowledged the mistake,
officially approving the grant money.
“It was like a woo hoo moment,” Millar said.
“We felt very validated,” Lomax added.
Dickson Schwarzbach said $143 million was applied for statewide,
but only $60 million was approved. To be able to get the funding
during a time when funds were so low was a welcome addition, she
said.
“Because of all these other cuts, the needs are greater now than
ever,” she said. “For it to be so competitive and get this funding
is just so fabulous. I’m so delighted.”
Through the two Boys and Girls clubs, services for students will
include: sports and recreation, health and life skills programs, a
technology lab, fine arts, education and career development, and
leadership and responsibility classes.
The grant will also provide for additional tutoring and
mentoring throughout the school year. The extra help will boost
those students who “had been doing well and then all of a sudden
hit the skids” and “give individual attention to kids and their
needs where during the school year they might not have the time,”
Dickson Schwarzbach said.
Millar said the simple fact that there will be more hours in a
school day will be of tremendous help to students.
“Sometimes I feel there aren’t enough hours in the day, so
expanding the program is really going to be a huge benefit,” she
said.
All of this because of the collaboration of a community.
“What was really great about it was, everybody wants to serve
kids in their own neighborhoods; it’s hard to think about sharing
money,” Lomax said. “But we were all willing to share. I really
feel every agency got what they were asking for.
“In this day and age all our resources are getting smaller and
smaller, but one resource we do have is working together.”
The grant became effective June 30.