Work by Matthew Stone

May 20, 2010

AUGUSTA -- Some 33 after-school programs across Maine will lose a third of their funding next school year, the result of the Maine Department of Education promising more grant money than it could afford.

Over the next year, the Department of Education will need to shed $2.5 million of its funding obligation to the programs, which provide after-school and summer programming largely to low-income students struggling in school.

Program directors say the loss of funds will force them to scale back the number of program sites and cut staff positions. The cuts, they say, will reduce the number of students they can serve.

The after-school programs -- which offer academic tutoring, college preparation help and enrichment activities to 10,000 children at 107 sites -- are funded by a five-year federal award known as the 21st Century Community Learning Center grant.

In 2008 and 2009, the Department of Education promised $31.8 million to the 33 programs -- mostly run through partnerships between school districts and community groups -- over the five-year grant length. The programs expected $7.4 million from the state for the 2010-11 academic year but instead will have to do with $4.9 million.

"I always know that, in the end, the people who come up short are the low-income kids that we're trying to serve," said Kathi Wall, executive director of the Augusta Boys and Girls Club, which coordinates Augusta's after-school program.

The Department of Education notified the grant recipients in an April 14 letter of the cuts, saying too much money had been promised.

Staff from the Department of Education, the Division of Purchases and the Department of Administrative and Financial Services "are sorting through the data and budgeting details in an effort to understand the reasons for the over-allocation," wrote David Stockford, the Department of Education's team leader for special services.

In a May 19 e-mail to members of the Legislature's Education Committee, Acting Education Commissioner Angela Faherty told lawmakers that department leaders would meet "to review how his happened and what will be in place to prevent this from happening again."

David Connerty-Marin, a Department of Education spokesman, said the department's first priority was to help grant recipients handle the funding loss.

"We take this very seriously," he said.

As a way to mitigate the cuts, Connerty-Marin said, the Department of Education will allow after-school programs to carry over end-of-the-year balances into the next fiscal year, which previously wasn't permitted.

"First and foremost, we need to do everything we can with the 33 recipients to protect them and their students," he said.

It's too early to pinpoint root causes for promising too much grant money, Connerty-Marin said.

"We need to look at the entire grant management process, and that's something that doesn't happen overnight," he said. "We don't want to jump to conclusions and put in place something that only fixes a small part of it."

Augusta's program, which serves students in grades three through 12 at seven sites, will have to cut its $300,000 allocation for 2010-11 by $101,000, according to Department of Education figures.

That will likely force Augusta to close some of its sites and shrink its staff, Wall said. In addition, summer programming this year will last for five weeks, instead of last year's seven.

"If there was some sort of bookkeeping glitch on the other end of the framework, the kids are the ones who pay for it," Wall said.

Skowhegan-based Regional School Unit 54's after-school program will also sustain a $101,000 cut, according to the Department of Education. Cutting the number of staff positions and stipends, director Ron Bonnevie said, will keep the program from serving some of the students who are eligible for the services -- which include academic enrichment, health and wellness activities and job skills training.

"The population of kids that come to the after-school program are the kids who aren't typically engaged in other extra-curricular activities," he said.

Bonnevie said he was "blown away" when he learned the grant would be scaled back.

"If they have a certain amount of money to award for grants, you only give out the awards you can fund," he said.

In the Gardiner area, Regional School Unit 11 partners with the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Gardiner to offer after-school programming for students in grades three through 12 at two schools and the club.

The $101,000 reduction will cause one of the program sites to close, said Ingrid Stanchfield, chief professional officer at the club. Summer programming will also be compromised she said.

"We're going to take what's given to us and keep moving on," Stanchfield said. "$200,000 is still pretty good. The kids will still have a good time and, hopefully, keep their grades up."

In Newport-based RSU 19, after-school program director Jim Dyer said his program would sustain its $99,500 cut largely by scaling back salaries, field trips and enrichment activities, such as dance instruction.

"We'll try to protect the program as much as we can so kids don't see the effects of it as much," he said.

Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, the chairman of the Legislature's Education Committee said the Department of Education had been "proactive" in addressing what he called the "mismanagement" of the grant.

"What concerns me above all is that this mismanagement is going to affect these students," Alfond said. "These are very targeted moneys toward students most in need to continue the skill-based programming, the cultural enrichment programming to really dovetail with what is happening in schools."

Sen. Carol Weston, R-Montville, said she was "astounded" Department of Education officials still haven't nailed down the cause of over-promising grant money.

"That letter (to grantees) went out April 14, and this (e-mail from Faherty) went out May 19, and if they don't know a month later how it happened, there's a major problem there."

"We will conduct a thorough review, not only of what happened here, but of our entire grant management system," Connerty-Marin said in an e-mail. "It is in everybody's best interests, including ours, to ensure we put systems in place to avoid this kind of situation in the future."

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435
mstone@centralmaine.com

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