Nagging uncertainty about next year hangs over SAFE BASE, USD 257’s after-school program.
Angela Henry, its director, told Advisory Committee members Tuesday evening she would know May 20 whether money from the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City would fund SAFE BASE’s 11th year for elementary students. The fifth and final year of a previous grant will keep alive activities at the middle and high schools for 2010-11.
The grant sought was written in two parts, one for $282,493 for next year, and $862,227 for a three-year package. A three-year grant received from the city of Iola for $53,100 — $17,700 a year — wouldn’t be sufficient to carry the program by itself.
Three other grant requests are in holding patterns.
One would provide $76,625, coupled with $7,000 provided by Allen County, for annual dental screenings for students in all three Allen County districts, Iola, Moran-Elsmore and Humboldt. It is being sought through REACH Healthcare Foundation. Henry will learn April 6 whether she will be permitted to submit a full application, to be decided June 14.
The second, for $760,434, also from Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, would pay for a three-year mental health cycle. With that money SAFE BASE would partner with Kansas Institute for Positive Behavior and Support at the University of Kansas and the local Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter. Henry will learn April 28 whether SAFE BASE will be asked to submit a full application. A decision would be made July 22.
The final grant request is for $50,397.45 from a private source, who prefers not to be identified. The money would fund summer programming.
BONNIE HOUK, an evaluator from the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center in Greenbush, visited middle and high school programs Tuesday and pronounced SAFE BASE a “dynamic program. I have nothing but good things to say about what I saw.”
She noted students and staff participated in a variety of activities and took advantage of academic opportunities. Houk’s only recommendation was that staff might “survey the kids to see if there are some things they’d like that you’re not doing.”
At the middle school, Matt Stuckey, facilitator, said “our math night for students and parents on Wednesdays is going well, with about 45 kids and parents coming each week.” In addition, students receive lessons in gardening, cooking and using Facebook from Allen County Community College students, and will also learn fishing this year. “Every Monday Matters” is a new service project started this week, in which students will help out in the community.
Iola High School’s Kim Bruner said about 60 percent of the school’s students had used the Monday evening tutoring program. High schoolers also do community service projects.
IF THE Healthcare Foundation grant materializes to keep SAFE BASE alive into its 11th year, enrichment emphasis will focus on gardening and healthy attributes of eating fresh vegetables. The planned theme is “Fun & Fit/Farm to Fork: Healthy Sprouts,” Henry said.
Other partners would be Elm Creek Community Garden, Kansas State Extension Service and Allen County.
A garden would be developed in a vacant area near Lincoln Elementary School and, Henry hopes, lead to gardens near other district schools.
Sheriff Tom Williams, whose staff cultivated a garden that provided supplemental food for 12,000 meals last year and helped cut jail food costs, would dispatch inmates to help build enclosed garden plots for SAFE BASE. The county would provide topsoil. SAFE BASE would tap into the expertise at Elm Creek Community Garden and Allen County Extension Service.
“Our immediate goal would be to have enough produce to supplement snacks and provide food for cooking classes,” Henry said. “Then, at the end of school, students would cook a meal for their parents with our garden vegetables. We might even have enough to supplement school meals.”
In partnership with Iola Recreation Department, city funds would pay the salary of a person to work 20 hours with SAFE BASE to develop after-school activities and another 20 hours a week with the rec department.
