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Coffee County School district officials are working to find a way to continue its afterschool programming, following recent news that the federal grant funding it had received for the last several years would no longer be available to fund the program.

Tonya Garner, Excellence Program director, said the district was informed it did not receive the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant after the close of business Friday, July 26. The program was set to begin following the Labor Day holiday.

“This grant funded the Excellence Afterschool Program in Coffee County Schools for the last five years at Deerfield, East Coffee, Hickerson and North Coffee and the last three years at Hillsboro Elementary,” she said. “The Excellence Afterschool Program at New Union and Coffee County Middle School was funded by ESSER for the last three years and that funding is no longer available.”

Garner said there were more applicants for the five-year grant than ever before.

“The max that you could request was $500,000,” she said. “We requested $500,000 but they only had $7.1 million to give out and $21 million was requested.”

Parents were notified on Monday, July 29 that the district did not receive the grant funding this year.

The next step was to reach out to parents with some possible options for moving forward.

“We sent out an email or a survey to all of the families in all of our elementary schools and the middle school to see if they would be willing to pay a small amount for their kids to go to the afterschool program for $10 a day,” Garner said.

The district has received about 660 responses from that survey, with about 400 saying they would be in favor of paying $10 a day for an afterschool program.

“We are going to present four different budgets to the board at the next board meeting to see if they like any of them or if they have any suggestions,” Garner said. “Whether it be a free program or whether it be where the parents have to pay.”

Garner said Coffee County Schools received a score of 84 on its grant application, and the cutoff was 88. An appeal has been filed that is currently pending.

“The fact that there was three times as many requests in the state as there was amount to fund, chances of an appeal working are limited but we have to at least try,” Director of Schools Dr. Charles Lawson said.

Lawson said Coffee County Schools recognizes the difficulties this situation might cause some parents, and they are doing their best to accommodate that and move forward.

Garner said the afterschool program utilized a combination of certified teachers, high school and college students, and she understands how the unexpected decrease in that income could be difficult for them.

“We realize that we have a lot of staff that depended on extra funding coming in, we are trying to figure out something for them too,” she said.

Lawson advised parents to keep an eye out for school communications regarding the issue, as they will be updated as developments occur.

Lawson said the loss of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant funding is an example of the importance of federal funding in public schools.

“I will say this, you hear a lot of politicians that talk about eliminating federal funding from schools,” Lawson said. “This was federal funding. You eliminate federal funding, and you tend to eliminate programs and that is what happened here, and it is a small part of the funding that we get but it still has a big impact.”