AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS ELIMINATED FROM LAUSD BUDGET: 14,000 K-8 students will be forced to leave the school yard 10 minutes after dismissal unless District and state cuts to two free programs are averted.

Dahlia Heights Parents Brace For Cuts to Afterschool Programs

By Ajay Singh, Eagle Rock Patch | http://bit.ly/KfsBXE

Photos/Video Credit Ajay Singh

June 15, 2012   ::  About 100 parents of students at Dahlia Heights Elementary School attended a meeting with LAUSD officials Wednesday evening to discuss the impact of an impending Districtwide budget cut to free afterschool services that would force some 14,000 K-8 students to leave school yards 10 minutes after dismissal.

Dahlia Heights: Sign outside Dahlia Heights Elementary bemoaning afterschool program cuts. Credit Ajay Singh

Dahlia Heights: Parents at the meeting. Seated to the right in the front row is Dahlia Heights Principal Rona Greenstadt. Credit Ajay Singh

The cuts, under the LAUSD’s “Beyond the Bell” initiative, involve Youth Services and the Youth Development Program, which are funded respectively by the District and the California Department of Education.

According to a handout distributed by the Dahlia Heights Parents Teachers Association at Wednesday’s meeting in the school’s auditorium, 180 of the school’s students who participate in both the YS and YDP afterschool programs will be affected by the cuts.

Dahlia Heights was among 85 schools targeted June 5 by the LAUSD for a total of $6.9 million in cuts to Youth Services. Even if the money, which comes out of the District’s discretionary general fund, were somehow to be restored, various other school programs would suffer as a result, David Estrada, senior policy advisor to LAUSD Board of Education Member Bennett Kayser, told the gathering of parents in a brief speech. His boss is firmly opposed to the YS cuts and is doing his best to find alternative sources of funding to help restore the YS program, Estrada added.

Beyond the Bell administrators have filed an appeal with the California Department of Education to restore funding for YDP, which would affect 17 schools and leave 337 employees without jobs at the beginning of the new school year on August 14, John Han, field coordinator for the LAUSD’s Beyond the Bell Branch, told the gathering.

Because a decision on the District’s appeal is expected as early as Friday, June 15, parents were urged to voice their concerns about the cuts to the following California Department of Education officials:

• Michael R. Funk, Director, After School Division (916) 319-0923 Mfunk@cde.ca.gov

• Tom Torlakson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Superintendent@cde.ca.gov

• Onda Johnson, Co-Administrator under Funk (916) 319-0923 ojohnson@cde.ca.gov

• Chuck Nichols, Co-Administrator under Funk (916) 319-0923 cnichols@cde.ca.gov

• William Ellerbee, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction (Funk’s boss) (916) 319-0797 wellerbee@cde.ca.gov

Parents are urged to personalize their letters by focusing on such issues as whether their children have improved in school because of the supervision and enrichment provided by YDP, and how the loss of the programs will impact financially on a family.