Harvard school officials plan to meet with representatives of the town's Parks and Recreation department and the old library Pilot Project in an effort to revitalize the district's Community Education program.
In the last fiscal year, the Community Education spent more than it earned, ending up with a deficit of $2,137, according to a spreadsheet prepared by finance director Lorraine Leonard.
"The secret here is participation. There’s no magic here. You have to find programs that the community will respond to, because if there’s no participation, there’s no revenue"
—Joe Connolly
The members of the School Committee agreed Monday night that, as long as the program meets costs, they will be satisfied keeping it under their purview.
"I would be happy if we broke even," said School Committee member SusanMary Redinger. "My concern is if we can't figure out why we are not profitable when we had been, then we can't figure out if it's worth investing into it."
The Community Education program offers before- and after-school activities for children and also has an adult education component. There is also a school-age childcare program, Bridges, which Leonard left out of her calculations.
"I thought it was inaccurate to lump that in," said interim Superintendent Joe Connelly.
It's the adult education program that the School Committee was most concerned about; the members agreed that the programs for children were more in line with the school department's core mission.
"I'd like us to be involved in as much of the student, kid stuff as we can," said School Committee member Piali De. "If we drop Spectrum [an enrichment program for students in grades one through five] or Global Child [a language instruction program] who's going to pick it up? Nobody."
Connelly said that, "more often than not," community education programs in other towns are under the direction of a parks and recreation department. In Harvard, the Pilot Project, a recently-launched community and arts center at the old library, also offers programs and classes for adults. The purpose of meeting with the Pilot Project and Parks and Recreation department, Connelly said, is to figure out, "What's the most efficient way to offer these programs?"
The School Committee and Connelly did not speculate Monday night on why the Community Education program had lost money. Whatever the cause, Connelly said, Community Education director Judy Cavanaugh is "very committed" to rebuilding the program.
"I can assure you she's going to do everything in her power to revitalize the program and keep this program in the black," Connelly said.
Connelly told the Press Tuesday he had not yet contacted the two other town organizations, but he plans to. In the meantime, he said, he and Cavanaugh will be working to identify programs that would be successful in Harvard.
"The secret here is participation," he told the School Committee Monday. "There's no magic here. You have to find programs that the community will respond to, because if there's no participation, there's no revenue."