SoNoCC after-school program likely to be limited next year to Title I children with ‘educational need’

NORWALK, Conn. — It appears likely that some of the South Norwalk children currently enjoying their first after-school activities in their own neighborhood will not be able to attend the program next year.

The reason the After the Bell program at the South Norwalk Community Center does not qualify for Title I funding lies in the admission process, Norwalk interim Superintendent of Schools James Connelly said Tuesday.

“We can’t have a lottery,” Connelly said. “… It can only be for Title I school kids, which are the majority.”

Connelly’s comments came after Board of Education members lauded the Norwalk Public Schools program, which they toured last week.

“We had a great time seeing the community center in action,” Mike Barbis said during Tuesday’s meeting.
“The kids were really engaged. If anything, the kids I saw, they were yawning, they were tired,” Barbis said with a laugh. “They had been like in school all day. They were learning more and I think they were ready to go home, but it was great.”

Heidi Keyes also lauded After the Bell at SoNoCC. “They really have a great program going,” she said, saying she was “very impressed.”

There are currently two classrooms at the center, with 27 children in the blue room, kindergarten through second grade, and 35 children in the green room, the third-grade through fifth-grade contingent, said Tricia Massucco, who runs After the Bell for the school system.

A Rowayton Elementary School teacher leads the instruction of the younger children, Massuco said last week. The kids were going from table to table during the open house, playing word games with instructors. As the afternoon wore on they went outside, running and shrieking joyfully on the playground behind the center.

There are more than 500 children in District 99, a part of South Norwalk with no home school for the kids to think of as a neighborhood base. Of the 115 children who signed up for the SoNoCC After the Bell program – a brainchild of former Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Manny Rivera – 62 were admitted through a lottery.

The Common Council recently authorized $80,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to be used to do further renovations at the center, which would build a third classroom and administrative offices. That would allow 20 more children to attend.

But Rivera planned to use Title I funds to support the program. The state recently declared it ineligible for Title I funds, although Rivera had been assured it qualified, BoE Chairman Mike Lyons said.

Connelly has expressed confidence that After the Bell will be funded next year.

“It’s a work in progress,” Connelly said Tuesday. “I’m waiting to see what the governor’s budget finally gives for afters-school programs; he had cut them. If he cuts them, then we’re going to have to do some research.”

He’s hoping to use a combination of state after-school money and Title I funds, he said. But only children who attend one of Norwalk’s five Title I schools will be able to participate in the program next year, he said, estimating that to cover 90 percent of the District 99 kids.

It’s likely that there will again be more demand than supply, so there will have to be a mechanism to winnow down the applicants. Since it can’t be a lottery, it may be done according to educational need, determined by evaluating academic records, Connelly said.

“Hopefully, by the beginning of June, I’ll have a more definitive answer,” Connelly said.