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Fees Likely For Saving Hillsborough After-School Program

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 30, 2008

TAMPA - Hundreds of parents told Hillsborough County commissioners they would be willing to pay a fee or increased fees if the county would protect after-school and summer recreation programs from budget cuts.

On Tuesday, a majority of commissioners welcomed a plan that not only would keep the two programs intact, but also would expand the after-school program to enroll 2,700 children on a waiting list.

For the plan to work, however, parents would have to pay a weekly fee of $5 to $20 per child for the now-free after-school program. The summer program, which now costs $50 for nine weeks, would cost $5 to $30 per week. The sliding fee scales would be based on income.

County parks director Mark Thornton presented the plan at a budget workshop Tuesday. He said the fees would restore 25 of 41 full-time positions that were to be part time in County Administrator Pat Bean's proposed budget, as well as keeping 175 temporary summer counseling positions that Bean had proposed eliminating.

The fees would be adopted in September when the final budget is approved.

Chairman Glad Coaches Could Stay

Commissioners told Thornton on June 5 to figure out a way to save the programs, even if it involved charging fees. They rejected his proposal to turn the programs over to a nonprofit agency such as the YMCA or to the Hillsborough school system.

"I'm very pleased with what you proposed," commission Chairman Ken Hagan told Thornton on Tuesday. "From all the e-mails and conversations I've had, they did not want to outsource. ... The coaches are like family to parents."

Commissioner Kevin White agreed, saying the expansion would keep youngsters out of trouble.

Both programs had been slated for drastic downsizing under Bean's plan to eliminate an $87 million county budget shortfall. By reducing the number of children in the programs and moving dozens of full-time park counselors to part-time status, Bean hoped to reduce the programs' budget by $1.4 million.

But parents got wind of the proposed reductions well before Bean's June 4 budget presentation. The programs were described as financially "unsustainable" in the parks department's new master plan, which is available online (www.hillsboroughcounty.org/parks).

Commissioners reported being inundated with e-mail and telephone calls from worried moms and dads, many of whom said they would be willing to pay a fee if the programs continued with the same counselors.

Field Trips For All

Thornton said the fee schedule would also help pay for field trips in the summer program, which now cost extra. The number of trips would be reduced from four to one or two a week but would be available to all children, regardless of income.

"We have a have and have-not situation now," Thornton said.

At some parks, none of the children can afford to pay for the trips, he said. At other parks, all of the children go.

Even with the fees, the two county programs are a bargain, Hagan said. The YMCA charges members $130 to $140 a week for summer camp, he said, and up to $200 a week for nonmembers.

There are 5,600 children enrolled in the after-school program and 8,000 in the summer program. There were 2,694 youngsters on the waiting list for the after-school program last year.

"We'll never get rid of the waiting list because we're the best program in town and the least costly," even with the new fees, Thornton said.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.

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