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District highlights Boys & Girls Club partnership, 21st CCLC grants and after-school reach
Summary
Cartwright presented its partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of the Valley, detailing a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, program costs and attendance figures; district provides transportation and the program serves roughly 1,000 students across multiple sites.
Cartwright Elementary District staff and Boys & Girls Club representatives presented the district's after-school partnership and federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) grants during the September board meeting, outlining program reach, costs and family access provisions.
Acting Superintendent Steve Watson turned the presentation over to district staff and Boys & Girls Club leaders, and Dr. Terry Schroeder, assistant director of supplemental technology and educational programs, and Meredith Scialla, federal programs director, described the collaboration. "The initiative with the Boys and Girls Club of the Valley is a community program designed to give all of our scholars access to quality after school programs," Schroeder said, noting 135 scholars registered at the Stewart branch and strong attendance across site schools.
The presentation said the Stewart branch (the Boys & Girls Club site near Indian School Road) had 135 registered scholars and about 108 scholars regularly attending from district schools, and that the program charges a $30 annual membership and a $60 monthly participation fee but operates a sliding scale and offers scholarships so families are not turned away. Josh Stein, vice president of external affairs and business partnerships for the Boys & Girls Club of the Valley, confirmed the sliding fee scale and said Friday and break-day access is available; he added that the Stewart branch opens at 7 a.m. on Fridays and closes at 6 p.m., while typical after-school days run into the evening.
Scialla and Schroeder said the district receives a 21st CCLC award that funds out-of-school-time programming and reported a $480,000-per-year award supporting four school sites (Cartwright and Tarver in year three of the award; Heatherbrae and Palm Lane in the first year of a renewed five-year agreement). The presentation said each of the four sites runs a robust after-school program (daily tutoring, STEM, arts, sports and family engagement activities) and that the full per-site program cost is about $225,000; the district contributes $95,000 per site to the Boys & Girls Club (about $380,000 total) and the club must fundraise roughly $520,000 to sustain programming.
The presenters described program structure and monitoring requirements: academic coordinators (district teachers) work with Boys & Girls Club staff and tutors to align instruction and report attendance and outcomes to the Department of Education; the 21st CCLC grant requires 100 students per site to attend 30 days or more for the grant measures. "The Boys and Girls Club truly know what is written in that grant," Schroeder said, noting the partnership supports grant competitiveness and high-quality programming.
Board members praised the work and asked for future data on engagement and outcomes. Governing Board President Lydia Hernandez requested additional information from staff on family engagement and program outcomes at a later meeting. "I would be, interested, mister Watson, maybe, because of the data that is collected with the interaction, that the Boys and Girls Clubs have with those families," she said.
The presentation emphasized that the district provides transportation from several schools to the Stewart branch to reduce access barriers and that 21st CCLC-funded students receive the after-school program free of charge. District staff said the partnership serves roughly 1,000 students across the district through various after-school and partner-funded programs.
Proper names in the presentation included the Boys & Girls Club of the Valley and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) federal grant program. The board did not take action on the presentation itself; staff suggested returning with more detailed outcome data at a future meeting.
Ending: Board members thanked the Boys & Girls Club representatives and district staff and asked staff to return with additional engagement and outcome metrics for future discussion.
