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Gladstone center reports program growth amid tight instructor funding and rising meal costs
Summary
Michelle, community center staff, told the Gladstone advisory board that program attendance and community partnerships are growing but budget limits mean volunteer-taught classes continue while paid instructors are paused; staff and the foundation described recent grants and about $100,000+ in annual meal expenses.
Michelle, the community center staff lead, briefed the Gladstone Community Center Advisory Board on March 17 about a surge in participation across weekday programs and continued pressure on the center's instructor-pay budget. She said Team Takeover youth nights, AARP tax-assistance appointments and a series of nutrition-focused lunch-and-learns have attracted residents while some paid classes must pause because the center lacks flexibility in its biennial instructor line item.
"We had team takeover. That was a pretty good success in January," Michelle said, describing variable youth attendance and plans to reassess the teen program after a planned first-responders night. She noted that some instructors, such as the Tai Chi instructor, volunteer and can continue year-round; other instructors are paid and the center has only budgeted a fixed amount for that pay over the current two-year forecast.
Board members pressed for clarity on why volunteer-taught Tai Chi continues while paid yoga was paused. Michelle explained the distinction is fiscal: volunteers allow the center to offer free classes without drawing on the limited instructor-pay allocation, whereas continuing paid instructors requires an allocated budget line. She said the center will use the coming budgeting cycle to show a track record of demand when requesting increased instructor pay.
On food programs, Michelle said the center received $10,000 from Meals on Wheels America this year for the home-delivered meals program, that Clackamas County reimburses approximately $2.25 per congregate meal and provides roughly $40,000 per year toward food costs, and that the center's overall annual feeding expenses are "well over $100,000," funded by a mix of county reimbursements, Medicaid, donations and city support. "Food's expensive, and our donations have gone down," she said.
The board also heard that a volunteer art instructor, Jean Higgins, has kept a popular youth art class running and that the foundation temporarily agreed to cover wages for an all-day painting class (instructor aged in the 80s) when the school district discontinued support and the city had no immediate budgeted line to pay the instructor.
Why it matters: advisory-board members and staff said these program successes show growing community demand, but the center's limited instructor-pay allocation and rising food costs could force choices between sustaining popular classes and meeting core meal and outreach needs. Michelle and foundation representatives said they will use program data and one-time foundation support to argue for larger, recurring budget allocations in the next biennial cycle.
The board approved the minutes from the Jan. 20 meeting before the staff update; later the board adjourned at 4:25 p.m. and scheduled its next meeting for April 21 at 3:30 p.m.
