Hundreds of families in Springfield that count on after-school and summer learning programs are about to have the rug pulled out from under them as federal funding has evaporated for key agencies that supply those services.
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Illinois informed Springfield School District 186 in early December that a grant of $1.2 million annually, provided through federal funding managed and distributed by the Illinois State Board of Education, was not renewed. This funding was instrumental in supporting the after-school programs provided by the Boys and Girls Clubs at Dubois Elementary, Fairview Elementary, Matheny-Withrow Elementary, Ridgely Elementary, Black Hawk Elementary, Harvard Park Elementary and Franklin Middle School, in addition to St. Patrick’s Catholic School, a private elementary school that primarily serves low-income students on Springfield’s east side.
The Springfield Urban League also did not receive its $1 million grant renewal, which had supported after-school programs at Feitshans Elementary, Southern View Elementary, Laketown Elementary, Lee Elementary and Graham Elementary. The grant also funded after-school programs for two high schools, the NAACP Back-to-School Stay-in-School program and one at Springfield High School.
In addition, the federal emergency pandemic funding that provided a $2 million annual investment for summer learning programs through Springfield’s Compass for Kids has expired.
“So now instead of serving 900 kids, we’re serving potentially 150 kids,” said Molly Berendt, founder and CEO of Compass for Kids. “It’s really sad for the kids, the families, the school districts and our broader community.”
The after-school and summer learning programs are a key way to address the drop in academic performance scores brought on by the pandemic, Berendt said. Those programs also provide options for working people who have no access to, or cannot afford, places where their children can stay and learn during their parents’ working hours.
The nonprofit agencies that administer the after school and summer learning programs have increased their fundraising efforts to try to make up for the federal funding shortfall. But it is an uphill struggle that has little chance of completely closing the gaping fiscal hole left by the federal funding loss.
“It’s egregious to lose that many programs all at one time.”
In 2015, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Illinois received a five-year grant of $1.2 million annually for after-school services from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. The federal program guidelines indicate that each grantee agency may receive one five-year funding auto-renewal, which occurred in 2020 for the Boys and Girls Clubs.
At the end of that second five-year cycle, the Boys and Girls Clubs had to supply a brand-new application for its eight federally funded sites, and that put the organization in competition with other nonprofits. The applications were reviewed by the Illinois State Board of Education, and board spokesperson Lindsay Record said that “applications from novice grantees were awarded priority points in order to increase access in underserved areas. Novice grantees are those grantees and programs that have not had a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant since FY 2014.”
The Boys and Girls Clubs is not a novice grantee and, as a result, eight of its after-school learning sites serving a total of 712 students will not receive federal funding and are at risk of closing.
“Those eight sites are a lot of our highest-need schools,” said Tiffany Mathis Posey, CEO and executive director of Boys and Girls Clubs. “I think it’s egregious to lose that many programs all at one time. To take these vital dollars out of communities that have these well-established and successful programs for more than a decade, it’s really wild, because what should the kids do?”
The 10 years of federal grant funding for the Boys and Girls Clubs ended in June 2024. Mathis Posey said the grant application process was made known late last summer. Being unsure of the outcome, the Boys and Girls Clubs let parents know at that time what was at risk and began to aggressively fundraise to try to keep the eight at-risk sites open and 70 staff members employed, she said.
The A.A. Harvey Foundation agreed to match up to the first $180,000 in donations that the agency received, and the campaign has nearly met its goal. American Business Club of Springfield donated $30,000, in addition to several other major donors who want to remain anonymous. Two businesses in Legacy Pointe, Engrained Brewing Company and Springhill Suites, have been collecting donations and offering their own match.
Mathis Posey said she is confident the eight sites in question can remain open through the end of the school year. However, she estimated that it will take a minimum of $810,000 to keep the eight sites operating on a bare-bones budget next school year, so it is uncertain whether the sites can continue to operate during the 2025-2026 school year.
The Boys and Girls Clubs after-school program sites that are not affected by the federal grant, and will remain open, include Ball Charter, Jane Addams, Hazel Dell, McClernand, Owen Marsh and Sandburg Elementary schools, Grant Middle School and the club’s headquarters on 15th Street. The service expansion that the Boys and Girls Clubs was able to achieve in Jacksonville School District 117 will remain open as well.
“The State Board of Education said there’s an expectation of some sustainability with this grant program,” Mathis Posey said. “But I will tell you there’s no way you can give anybody $1.2 million to run eight programs and think we have the capability to fundraise that amount each year. That’s impossible in the Springfield community.”
Mathis Posey has been lobbying federal and state lawmakers to see if there is any way to keep the funds flowing to Springfield after-school programs.
“There is no day care for school-age kids, so you’re either going to have to find a way to have a nanny or you’re leaving kids at home with an older sibling, and that poses a lot of issues,” Mathis Posey said. “I have four kids and I’ve been a single mom, so I know what it’s like to not know what you’re going to do after school with your 6-year-old or your 8-year-old. We’ve got grandparents raising grandchildren, we’ve got parents that work a lot of nontraditional work hours or multiple jobs, who cannot afford child care.”
“Heartbreaking and counterproductive to what our community needs.”
The Springfield Urban League ceased after-school operations in mid-2024 at its seven locations that had been funded by federal grants. This means approximately 700 students have lost access to after-school programming due to the funding loss.
“This loss is deeply disappointing, especially as the demand for academic and after-school support continues to grow post-COVID-19,” said Marcus Johnson, president and CEO of the Springfield Urban League. “These programs have been a cornerstone for our students and the community, and the inability to continue them creates a significant gap in critical services for children and families.”
Johnson said Urban League programs such as Freedom Schools have been pivotal in improving literacy and fostering cultural and historical awareness, while the HBCU/College Tour has inspired many students to pursue higher education. The funding constraints mean that Freedom Schools will reduce its capacity from 130 students to approximately 50 this summer, and the operational costs of the HBCU/College Tour exceed the agency’s capacity this year.
The Springfield Urban League’s GB Winston Scholarship program will continue to support first-time college students, and its competitive Robotics Club will remain active. In addition, the Urban League is still supporting approximately 400 students through other programs with alternative funding sources at Springfield High School, Southeast High School, Lanphier High School, Washington Middle School and Jefferson Middle School.
Despite these few bright spots, Johnson said the federal funding loss is devastating.
“This is heartbreaking and counterproductive to what our community needs. These programs provide critical academic support, stability and inspiration for our students, particularly in underserved areas,” Johnson said. “Losing access to programs at schools not only affects the children but also the families who rely on these resources for their kids’ development and growth.”
The ISBE’s Lindsay Record stressed that the state agency “fully supports after-school programs and the many benefits they provide to students and families,” but added that “programs must include sustainability plans in their applications for funding, renewal is never guaranteed, and if renewal is granted, it cannot occur more than once.”
Meanwhile, as reported by Capitol News Illinois, ISBE miscalculated how much federal money would be available for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. According to the April 2023 news story, ISBE officials were unable to accurately estimate the impact that federal rule changes would have and as a result made commitments to distribute more funds than were actually available. ISBE notified the affected organizations as soon as the discrepancy was discovered.
Springfield School District 186 spokesperson Rachel Dyas said that families affected by the loss of after-school programs can reach out to Project SCOPE, which provides before and after-school programming for a weekly fee. Those interested may call 217-525-3309 or visit https://www.sps186.org/page/scope for more information about SCOPE and payment assistance.
“We will continue to work closely with both the Boys and Girls Clubs as well as the Urban League to explore potential solutions to address this issue and are communicating with our families with the latest information,” Dyas said.
“Their kid is not going to be able to attend this summer.”
Elementary and Secondary School Emergency grants provided $189.5 billion to states to help K-12 schools respond to the pandemic through expanded summer learning options to enable students to catch up.
Those grants expired Sept. 30, 2024, including a $2 million annual grant to Compass for Kids in Springfield, which partners with District 186 through Camp Compass to be Springfield’s elementary summer learning provider. Camp Compass served 924 kids this past summer at seven locations, whereas pre-pandemic it had just one location.
Using funds from the school district and a grant from United Way of Central Illinois, Compass for Kids currently has enough money to operate one summer learning site for 150 kids. The organization is raising additional funds in the hope that a second site can be opened to accommodate an additional 150 kids.
Still, 300 kids is a far cry from 924.
“We have been losing sleep over this for the past year. I think it’s extremely frustrating because we have a proven, effective program that has a life-changing impact on the participants,” said Compass for Kids CEO Berendt. “It’s heartbreaking for those of us who work at Compass for Kids because we’re going to be the ones telling the parents and guardians that their kid is not going to be able to attend this summer.”
Ironically, Camp Compass recently received a national award from the U.S. Department of Education – one of only 13 organizations so recognized and the only one from Illinois – that indicates Camp Compass is a model of summer education that the Secretary of Education wants to see replicated across the country. And yet the program will have to scale back because of dried-up federal funds.
“It’s not really possible to close the learning and achievement gap without interventions over the summer,” Berendt said. “Despite the fact that the pandemic aid is over, all kids have not caught up yet from that lost learning that happened. Higher income students did not lose quite as much and they mostly caught up, but it’s the
low-income kids, like those we serve at Camp Compass, who have not.”
Be the Difference
While after-school and summer learning program cuts are on the horizon for Springfield School District 186, another program is starting that aims to improve students’ social and emotional well-being through daily encouragement.
Be the Difference will place adult volunteers in the district’s middle and high schools to have simple, positive interactions with students. It’s being coordinated by Julie Benson, who is volunteering her time to get the effort rolling.
“The idea is not to be involved on an administrative or security side, just simply greet them with a handshake or high-five, a hug in some cases, with a smile on your face,” Benson said. “Saying ‘Hey, we are here, we want to be supportive, we want you to have a good day.'”
Benson is working with District 186 officials, including Terrance Jordan, who serves as director of school leadership and family and community engagement, to get Be the Difference underway.
“We are looking to potentially roll it out this spring at a middle school and a high school, but we haven’t nailed down which ones yet,” Jordan said. “We are going to do a big push from our side to inform people and get them to sign up.”
Jordan said he hopes the program can be sustainable, with volunteers committing to be there as promised for students.
“We want people to really think about this, we want to know if they will be available consistently,” Jordan said. “We don’t want to offer a program to students and then have it be inconsistent where people are quitting on them. We’re not saying it has to be every day, you can commit to just one day a week.”
Benson got the idea for the Be the Difference program while watching a video a few years ago about another district that brought in adult male volunteers to greet students in the morning and at lunchtime, particularly those students who might have few friends or were at risk of being bullied.
“The video I watched indicated that they had more students showing up at school every day, so attendance was up, and more kids were graduating and doing things in a positive way after school instead of going to jail and things like that,” Benson said. “The kids were actually doing something with their lives.”
Benson stressed that she welcomes both men and women as Be the Difference volunteers but hopes to get plenty of men to step up for the program.
“I feel like one of the failings in society these days for low-income kids is the fact that they don’t have a man in their life, or a good man,” Benson said. “So we want to bring forward some positivity with male role models who could possibly be mentors to some of these kids.”
Benson is no stranger to running programs that benefit vulnerable populations. She launched Helping the Homeless in 2016 and has since used donations raised through her Facebook page to help the unhoused in Springfield. She stepped back from full-time street outreach last year and now focuses on two sober living homes for men she operates without any government funding.
“We’re trying to make school a place where they can get some positivity, mentoring and acknowledgment. If you acknowledge people and let them know you care, and that you’re going to be there every day, I really think that can make an impact,” Benson said. “My hope is this is so successful that these kids will go out in the working world, make a difference, and then want to come back and do the same thing for other kids.”
Contact Julie Benson at 217- 652-1307 for more information on getting started as a program volunteer.
– David Blanchette
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This article appears in A critical loss for District 186.
