Middletown Sticks With YMCA Of Shrewsbury For After-School Care

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — After publicly toying with ending the contract for Community YMCA of Shrewsbury to provide before- and after-school care, the Middletown Board of Education decided this week to renew their contract — for one more year.

"We ultimately decided to renew the contract," said Pam Rogers, president of the Middletown Board of Education. "We negotiated with the YMCA and they agreed there would be no cost increase. That was important to us. They also told us they would be fully staffed and will have 10 additional floating staff. There also will no longer be a waiting list for children, and we will be given a monthly dashboard so we can chart kids' progress. That was also important to us."

Community YMCA of Shrewsbury has been providing before- and after-school care for the Middletown public school district for the past 10 years. They charge about $10 per child per hour for the service, which is provided from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

However this spring, after Middletown lost millions of dollars in state aid, the Board of Education decided to look for a new after-care provider, one that could possibly bring in additional revenue for the cash-strapped district.

"Middletown has had $6.3 million cut from our state aid over the next five years," Rogers told Patch. "It's devastating and not everybody understands that. We put out an RFP (request for proposals) for a new after-care provider, and there was a part in the RFP that said we were looking to make a little revenue from this, which would go right back into the school year budget."

One company the Board was considering was Right at School, a for-profit after-school company that is based in Chicago and already has a contract with nearby Hazlet public schools.

However, after a parent outcry, the Board of Ed. decided to stick with Community YMCA, even though the contract is not revenue-producing for the district.

"Unfortunately it didn't work out, but we will be looking to increase revenue in new ways, because we've had these cuts," said Rogers. "The school district and the Board will be working very hard to come up with new ways to increase revenue."

Middletown lost a devastating $500,000 in state aid in 2019 alone, and that number will only rise in future years.

Suburban school districts such as Middletown were hit hard in a controversial new state funding formula devised by Gov. Phil Murphy, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney and state Education Commissioner Lamont Repollet. Their formula took into consideration the drop in enrollment at many suburban school districts; Middletown has had a seven percent drop in enrollment.