The Community Learning Centers offered to area children are in jeopardy if grant monies don’t come
through this summer.
Already, the CLC at Elmwood has been shuttered as the Wood County Educational Service Center tightens its
budget.
The learning centers offer before-school and after-school activities – as well as summer events – to
elementary students now in five county school districts.
Warren Fauver, director of grants and special projects for the service center, which runs the programs,
said enough funding is available to keep remaining centers open through 2014-15, but after that they
will have to reassess their spending.
"There are no cuts on the immediate horizon," he said.
Elmwood was closed because it impacted the fewest families, he said. He indicated eight youngsters were
enrolled in that program.
If any one of the three grants he’s hoping to receive come through this summer, he’ll reopen Elmwood in
the fall.
Those grants would total $600,000. It costs the ESC about $1.2 million to offer the year-round programs
at its sites.
Fauver warned the ESC board last fall that the programs might need to be downsized if the center
continues to lose grant funding.
Fifty to 60 percent of funding for the programs comes from sources that are renewable, but the balance
comes from other time-limited grants.
The programs provide enrichment and extended learning activities for elementary children – grades
kindergarten through sixth. These programs engage children in fun learning experiences.
Learning centers are held in the Bowling Green school district, plus Eastwood, Genoa, Northwood, North
Baltimore, Rossford and Woodmore.
The ESC in the past has received funding from four federal 21st Century grants, but two of those grants
have expired and two more are in their last year of funding.
In addition to the grants that are expiring, funds from a Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant will run
out this month.
Fauver said the program will lose about $283,000 this summer, but that loss will be partially offset for
a new $146,000 21st Century grant.
At Tuesday’s ESC governing board meeting, the board also wrote off $300 as uncollectable from someone who
rented its facility. The person said she was working with the State Department, but it turned out she
was just a subcontractor. The board may move toward requiring a rental deposit in the future.
With regret, the board also approved the resignation of Belinda Rhoads, director of special needs,
effective July 31.
Rhoads had been with the service center since at least 1994.