BUCKLAND — A new district-wide, after-school program will cost Mohawk Trail Regional School District $50,670 next year – or $275 a day.
The cost includes the equivalent of 1.54 new positions – a program director post, held by Alia Woofenden, and a lead teacher job, held by Ezra Greenfield – Superintendent Michael Buoniconti said. Two Mohawk Trail Regional School students assist once a week.
Although the district-wide after-school supervision service started last fall, it’s broken out in next year’s budget for the first time. The Mohawk Trail Regional District School Committee voted this month to support the program for next school year. If two-thirds of towns adopt the school budget at May annual meetings, it will be adopted.
The district-wide program is held at Mohawk Trail Regional School. Mohawk and Hawlemont district students in third to sixth grade can access the program, and are bused to the Buckland campus for free. As the trip for Hawlemont students is especially long – about an hour, including student drop-offs – Woofenden picks them up herself.
The Mohawk program will be in addition to after-school supervision programs held in elementary schools and feature special activities beyond what’s offered at the other sites.
According to Buoniconti, Mohawk’s after-school program will become financially self-sufficient – paid for by student participation – in three to four years. This year, the program will generate about $10,000, Buoniconti said. Buckland-Shelburne and Sanderson Academy services are already self-sufficient, he said.
All four Mohawk and Hawlemont schools already have after-school programs. Buckland-Shelburne, Colrain and Hawlemont schools offer such care for students from kindergarten to sixth grade, Buoniconti said, while Sanderson Academy has a program for kindergarten to second graders. Colrain’s program was reinstated this school year after about a decade’s hiatus, Principal Amy Looman said.
The new service offers supervision for $12 a day, while activities, held a few times times a week, cost extra depending on the program. Attendance hovers at 10 students on average a day: eight partake in activities while two opt for supervision only, Buoniconti said. Woofenden is testing a range of programs, like animal tracking, skiing, pingpong, and painting, to see what students like. Each activity spans about six weeks, costing $60 to $90 in total.
At the moment, the after-school program offers skiing on Monday, painting on Tuesday (funded by a state grant), comic drawing and birding classes Thursday, and a cooking class Friday.
At the end of this school year, Woofenden said, she plans to “evaluate what it is families want.”
“We’re in kind of an experimental trial stage,” Woofenden said.
Reach Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280.