More News

Many parents can attest to the difficulty of finding after-school activities that keep their kids engaged. And now that some county middle schools have been cut from funding through the RecExtra program, some children will have fewer options when it comes to keeping busy after school's out.

Funded through the county recreation department, the RecExtra program was launched in1999 as a way to supplement existing after-school programs at 10 county middle schools, and later expanded to middle schools county-wide. Though it's structured differently at each school, the funds — about $12,000 per school — help to field costs of activities ranging from cartooning to guitar to babysitting classes. They also can provide a stipend for an employee at the school to act as an after school activities coordinator, interfacing with outside vendors, taking attendance and making sure each student is accounted for.

In the past, the program has been lauded as a way to keep kids off the streets after school.

For the upcoming school year, however, 13 of the county's 38 middle schools will have their RecExtra funds cut, according to Melanie Coffin, manager of Montgomery County recreation department. The funding cut came with the May County Council vote on the county's budget, Coffin said, though the recreation department chose which schools would lose the program.

"It was a really difficult decision," Coffin said. Ultimately, it was based on whether the schools already had a lot of after school activities outside of the RecExtra programs, and the number of students enrolled in free and reduced-priced meals programs. "It did disproportionately hit the Western part of the county, which tends to be more affluent," Coffin said.

Nearly half of the schools affected are in the Bethesda and Potomac areas, including Cabin John Middle School, Herbert Hoover Middle School, Tilden Middle School, Thomas W. Pyle Middle School, Robert Frost Middle School and North Bethesda Middle School. The others are Forest Oak Middle School, Francis Scott Key Middle School, Julius West Middle School, Lakelands Park Middle School, Montgomery Village Middle School, Redland Middle School and Shady Grove Middle School.

The schools will continue to offer activities, but without funding from the RecExtra program, it will be difficult to provide a wide array of opportunities and drum up volunteer support to cover the after-school activities coordinator role and funds for activities, parents say.

"We're doing everything we can to continue it, but without the money it's going to be very challenging from a volunteer parent perspective to pull it off," said Mary Collishaw, a co-chair of the after-school activities committee for the North Bethesda Middle School Parent Teacher Student Association.

At North Bethesda, the program allowed for the school to provide after-school activities at a reduced price, such as six weekly guitar lessons for $55, Collishaw said.

For working parents, having a place for their children to go after school for an hour and a half three days a week was an added benefit, Collishaw said. "This really bridged the gap for many working parents," Collishaw said. "There's a big difference between your kid getting home at 3:15 and your kid getting home at quarter of five when you are a working parent of a middle schooler."

Other coordinators have raised concerns that even though the schools may be located in wealthy areas, many parents who benefitted from the program are struggling.

"It doesn't matter where you live in the county, some people can't afford to have these after-school activities," said Melissa Keller, who helped launch the RecExtra program at Tilden several years ago and is vice-president of the Tilden PTSA. She noted some families in her school community with parents that have been laid off or deployed.

At Tilden, activities ranging from hip-hop dance classes to keyboarding classes to cooking classes were provided free of charge. "Of all the things to cut, why would you cut an after school program when there is so much research out there that proves we need to keep these kids busy after school?" Keller said.

At the 13 schools, the cut is beginning to be announced at PTSA meetings, and parents, administrators and teachers are gearing up to face the next school year without the extra recreation dollars. "I met with the PTSA yesterday and we talked about ways to team up to make sure we have enough after school activities," said Billie-Jean Bensen, principal of Herbert Hoover Middle School.

Others hope to push for ways to partially restore the funding. "It's a tremendous loss," Keller said.