Community Learning Centers coming under fire with city deficit

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By KEVIN ABOUREZK / Lincoln Journal Star

Fourth-grader Emily Bargar chewed carrots and peanut butter Thursday as friends threw Frisbees and played tag.

“You get to walk around and do all sorts of different things,” Bargar said of Splash, the end-of-the-year party held by McPhee Elementary Community Learning Center.

The McPhee center is one piece of an initiative serving nearly 4,000 Lincoln students with before- and after-school programs — and one now falling under the microscope of cost-concerned city officials.

View Slideshow

Cheryl Bullard helps Chino Chavez during the softball toss game resulting in prizes of notebooks, paper and pencils during the CLC family night called SPLASH at McPhee Elemetary school. Between 70-200 families often attend and learn about fun, healthy ways to enjoy summer free time. (Michael Paulsen)

Last week, Mayor Chris Beutler’s office sent a letter to Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Susan Gourley informing her of the city’s intention to re-examine its participation, citing a growing city deficit.

The Community Learning Center brings schools, the city and nonprofit groups together to offer educational services meant to improve learning, and strengthen families and neighborhoods.

“We want to work with the CLC initiative partners to preserve these important programs,” the mayor wrote. “We are hopeful that a new structure can be developed that allows the city to remain as a financial partner, sustains the CLC programs currently in place and maintains the quality of the CLC sites.”

The initiative could look significantly different should the city withdraw support, said Cathie Petsch, who with Lea Ann Johnson coordinates the CLC. Each community partner brings something different to the effort, Petsch said.

“We’re better together than we are separate,”  she said.

The city provides recreational expertise through its Parks and Recreation Department, and among the nine lead agencies involved, Petsch said, the city offers as much as any in terms of financial support and direct services.

Lincoln has 23 centers — 18 at elementary schools and five at middle schools.

The schools partner with community groups that hire site supervisors and provide other support. The city pays the salaries of four of the initiative’s 15 supervisors. Those four oversee six centers.

The city spent $178,000 on the nationally recognized program this year, according to Parks and Recreation Director Lynn Johnson.

The nine lead agencies involved plan to spend $844,000 for the fiscal year that begins July 1, Petsch said.

A Leadership Council — made up of stakeholders — oversees the effort, funded through the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools, 21st Century Community Learning Center grants and matching resources from local funders.

The core of the program is the before- and after-school programs, which combine academics and recreation tailored to each school.

At Lefler Middle School, there’s the School of Rock, an outlet for budding guitarists, drummers and singers. At Dawes Middle School, there’s an archery club. There are homework clubs, reading and science clubs and reading intervention programs.

But the CLCs also reach out to families and neighborhoods, working to increase parent involvement.

The CLC doesn’t create services; it acts like a pipeline to connect people to them, Petsch said.

“The initiative is really a framework where good ideas grow.”

In 1999, four pilot centers were opened in Lincoln. A year later, a $2.3 million federal grant increased that to 11. It’s grown steadily since.

The initiative recently applied for a five-year, $2.4 million U.S. Department of Education Full Service Community Schools grant. The money would go to improve educational programs at four schools in Lincoln’s core neighborhoods — Prescott, Saratoga, Everett and McPhee elementary schools.

The money could not be used to fill a funding void should the city leave the initiative, said Petsch, who is confident the initiative would continue even if city support ends.

“It’s going to tilt us for a while, but we’ll be upright in the end,” she said.

In the letter to Gourley, Beutler listed several reasons for reconsidering support, but chief among them was a ballooning city deficit from stagnant sales tax income and rising personnel costs.

The city wants to shift human services to nonprofits, which can provide them cheaper, Beutler said.

According to the letter, the city might provide funds to the centers but not services or employees. The city would consider attempting to find transitional funding to fill the void left by the city.

For the six centers overseen by city-paid site supervisors — Belmont, Everett, Lakeview, McPhee and Pershing elementaries, and Mickle Middle school  — Beutler’s letter spells an uncertain future.

Susan Sapp, president of the McPhee parents’ association, fears a return to the days before the Community Learning Center brought needed resources to a school where more than 80 percent of students qualify for free and reduced lunch.

Before the center opened at McPhee, the parents’ association sponsored after-school programs, which included Spanish and dance clubs. But it struggled to keep the programs going, Sapp said.

“It was nearly impossible to sustain without the time and money and resources the CLC brings,” she said.

At McPhee’s Splash party, those resources were on display.

Teachers and staff, First Presbyterian Church members, the Lincoln Women’s Chamber of Commerce and the city Parks and Recreation Department combined to provide activities and student summer supplies, including books, vitamins, flash cards, folders, notebooks and Frisbees.

“A lot of these kids need those items,” said Jeff Bargar, former president of the parents’ association. “It’s serving an at-need population.”

And the center’s students help the neighborhood.

Students of the McPhee center converted gravel-covered school playground into green space that everyone uses. Students in the summer program also planted a garden.

McPhee fifth-grader Tanner Crable said that was educational.

“I got to learn about all sorts of plants.”

Reach Kevin Abourezk at 473-7225 or kabourezk@journalstar.com.