School Board Votes to Approve Partnership Grant With ERfC

The Enfield Board of Education voted 7-2 in favor of a two-part motion approving the Partnership Grant with Educational Resources for Children, Inc. and ERfC’s use of the elementary schools for the program at its meeting Tuesday night.

Board members Tom Sirard and Chuck Johnson voted against the motion for ERfC to use John F. Kennedy Middle School, Enfield Street School, and Henry Barnard School for the purposes of implementing the After School Partnership Grant at JFK and after-school programs at the Enfield Street and Barnard Schools, pending completion of arrangements for leasing the facilities and for obtaining Department of Health licensing for the programs.

School Board Chairman Greg Stokes told the board that ERfC was having timing issues and wouldn’t be able to replicate its program currently in place at JFK at the other schools by September 6.

Stokes wants to help ERfC maintain the status quo and not see the process come to a stop. He wants the company and the Town Council to have the time for the independent after-school program to expand.

“I think it is only fair to them and to the children and the community that we actually do something like this,” Stokes said.

Board member Judy Apruzzese-Desroches supports this low cost program because there are 100 or more students who use it. She doesn’t want children to have no place to go after school in September, she said.

Apruzzese-Desroches said the program has been around for a long time, and it doesn’t take away from daycare providers. “There isn’t enough daycare in our community to provide for all the children that need daycare,” she said.

Sirard had reservations about the program, even though he thinks it is a great idea.

“I’m afraid that if the grant money doesn’t come through, there will be some future meeting where we are approached to fund the program,” Sirard said. “We can’t afford it.”

Stokes said that there was no financial obligation to the board if ERfC didn’t receive the grant.

“There are no financial commitments,” Stokes said, adding that if something did happen in the future that he wouldn’t vote to fund the program.

Claire C. Hall, executive director of ERfC, said the $150,000 grant was to help low to moderate income families by subsidizing the program. The company cannot offer subsidized funding to families without the grant, she said. “We are not dependent on that grant to operate,” Hall said.

Hall said her company can operate at each site with 15 to 20 paying families because parents will pay for services. "My company goes after grants to give all town students fair opportunity to participate in after school programs," Hall said.
“We are not dependent on the board. We have never been dependent on funding from the Enfield public schools. We are working for kids. That’s what we do.”