Coffee County committee outlines fee plan, staffing options to sustain Excellence after-school program

A Coffee County Schools committee meeting on an Excellence after-school program reviewed staffing and budget options and agreed on a recommended fee structure and operational changes to present to the full board for approval in March.

Committee members and school staff focused on whether to continue the free, district-run tutoring hour and how to cover costs now that the 21st Century grant is not funding the program. Tanya, a site director for the Excellence program with Coffee County Schools, said, "Right now, it is free for everybody," and walked the group through attendance figures, sample budgets and vendor options, including a private operator called Healthy Kids.

Why it matters: The district served as many as seven sites under the 21st Century grant; without that funding the district faces a projected shortfall and must decide how much to charge families, how to staff academic tutoring, and whether to preserve the tutoring hour that district leaders say yields the program's primary academic benefit.

Committee members reviewed three staffing/budget scenarios that used the district's current pay assumptions (a $12,000 site-director allowance in the spreadsheet and a $30-per-hour teacher rate, $20-per-hour teacher-assistant rate). Tanya said the district's baseline estimate for operating seven sites at the reduced staffing levels would be roughly $200,000 for a 124-day model and that other configurations (for example, six sites or four sites, and 178 days if the program runs from the first day of school through the last) produced different cost estimates. For a full school-year schedule of 178 days with teachers and assistants at seven sites, Tanya showed estimates in the materials for board consideration.

Vendor and subsidy options discussed included Healthy Kids, a private after-school operator that the committee members said recently started programs in Tennessee. Tanya said Healthy Kids charges "278 a month" and can apply for Department of Human Services child-care certificates that may eliminate fees for some low-income families. Cara Reagan, identified in the meeting as the director of the Healthy Kids site in Warren County, told committee members that Healthy Kids had "5 in their program" at one initial site, a detail the committee noted when weighing vendor risk and start-up time.

The committee discussed program design trade-offs. One recurring suggestion was to preserve the first hour after school as the academic (tutoring/homework-help) hour and charge families who need child-care beyond that time. Members proposed several variants: a daily fee, a weekly flat fee, sibling discounts, and registration fees. The committee converged on a recommendation for a predictable weekly rate rather than a daily charge.

Recommendation and next steps: Committee members agreed to recommend that the board consider a pilot model that would: - Charge families $20 per week for the first child and $15 per week for each additional child (weekly rate covers Monday'Friday; the committee emphasized the academic/tutoring component would run Monday'Thursday). - Keep Fridays as a supervised activity day without certified-teacher tutoring to reduce certified-teacher staffing costs. - Move middle-school students to their home elementary schools for after-school supervision rather than maintaining a separate middle-school site, with site directors responsible for local staffing assignments. - Require registration and a handbook and have site directors work out operational details (attendance reporting, payment collection, late-pickup policy) before the proposal goes to the full board in March.

Committee members discussed equity safeguards and scholarships. Several members said they preferred keeping an academic-first hour free for students with the highest academic need, funded by district subsidy or targeted scholarship funds. The group also discussed using district fund balance to cover shortfalls and seeking grant opportunities in 2026, including re-applying for the 21st Century grant and the LEAP grant when applications reopen.

Operational details: The Nutrition Department will continue to supply an afternoon snack and juice, the committee heard. For payment and recordkeeping the committee discussed collecting fees in advance (weekly or monthly), routing cash/check receipts through the school bookkeepers and central office per existing deposit rules, and limiting on-site electronic payments unless a district system is implemented. Site directors would monitor payment compliance; members discussed immediate removal from the program if prepayment is not kept current.

The committee asked Tanya and site directors to prepare a budget and a draft handbook with administrative procedures (registration, scholarship/referral process, payment collection, late-pickup sanctions, staffing assignments) to present at an upcoming work session and for placement on the March board agenda. The committee noted this will be a trial year with likely revisions after actual registration and attendance numbers are available.

"I feel better now," Tanya said near the meeting's end, describing the committee's direction for preparing materials for a board decision in March.

Votes at a glance (committee-level consensus): The group reached consensus to recommend the $20 per week / $15 additional-child structure, preserve the academic hour as the priority, operate Fridays as non-tutoring supervised days, and shift middle-school students to their home elementary sites for supervision. The recommendation will be brought to the full board for formal action; the transcript records no formal board vote during this meeting.