I heard from a friend that Rock Hill School District has decided to cancel the Challenger program. I am new to the Rock Hill area but it is to my understanding that this program would have allowed for after school care and summer care. What are the parents suppose to do that have to work this summer and their children are to young to stay home. I understand that their are some other options for the summer such as YMCA (not as productive as the Challenger program) and the Girls and Boys Club (which recently just had funding cut), but what about for the fall? I personally was counting on this program to help with my daughter's after school care while I was in school. Now I'm not sure what to do? Does anyone have any suggestions on other after school programs? If so could you please let me know :) Please email to martinj10@winthrop.edu
Here is the link to the article in the paper about the Challenger program. Please read and see if you find this as crazy as I do:
http://www.heraldonline.com/front/story/1285235.html
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4 comments:
I agree that the elimination of the Challenger program is sad. It also goes against what we have been learning in Dr. Ferguson's course. In Home-School-Community Collaboration we have learned how important it is for schools to offer before and after-school programs to meet the needs of working families. However, I am not surprised by the decision in light of the current economic situation. On of my friends works the after-school/summer program offered in the Fort Mill School District. This program is not offered by the district but rather by Leroy Springs Complex. Springs staffs the program at all five elementary schools during the school year and at two elementary schools during the summer months. All the schools have seen a drop in attendance since last school year. My friend has repeatedly had her hours cut this school year. She had been working 2:30 - 6pm Monday-Friday. She currently does not work on Thursdays, and must leave by 5pm on Wednesday and Friday. Due to lower than expected summer enrollment, she has been told that her services will not be needed this summer. The school she works at had been maxed out at 70 children and they had a waiting list. At last count, they were down to 31 students. Parents are losing their jobs and pulling their children from the program. Parents still working but struggling, are turning to family and friends who will provide them with child care for free or for reduced charge.
I was astonished when I found out that they were going to eliminate the Challenger program. I think Dr. Moody is now reconsidering since there has been such an outcry from parents.
I find it distrubingly ironic that our society and government places so much emphasis on education and yet they are cancelling a program that is so vital to many families. We talk about equal educational opportunity and No Child Left Behind and then we cancel programs that may potentially help close that gap. It just doesn't make sense.
On a positive note, I think it is refreshing to see parents voicing their opinions educational programs and that administrators are listening. If teachers were as persistant with policies and programs they would like to see implemented perhaps they would see more changes to our current system.
A friend of mind who is a single mom relied heavily on Challenger. In fact, this program is the only reason that she was able to work. Without this, she would have only been able to work part time. Since she doesn't get any child support from her three daughter's father (who is in prison) her hardships would have been even greater. It seems that in times like these when these programs should be expanded, they are being reduced or cut out all together. I think that they are going to re-think things and see if they can have the program during the next school year. I was amazed that it got the ax the first meeting that the school board held. It was not even considered that they may be able to work some compromise or even raise the fee amounts so that the program would at least break even
I agree with all of you. Challenger was an extremely loved program in Rock Hill. I actually worked for the program a bit during my undergrad career at Winthrop. What's so ironic is that they actually uncovered that Challenger was MAKING money... something like $50,000 a year? It was only losing money in the summer. A committee is planning to meet for the first time next week to discuss the programs future, so it will be interesting to see the outcome.
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