By Jeffrey Schwom

Fees for a popular public after-school program will rise for most children as the district tries to bring accounting out of the red before the end of the school year.

Families with children in the Community Schools Afterschool Program and Apollo programs will pay $20 more per week per child, or roughly $700 more per school year, starting Jan. 26. Students on a sliding payment scale or on full scholarships will not see increases this academic year.

To meet “high demand” across programs and with expenses projected to exceed income, “a tuition increase is necessary to close the gap,” superintendent Ruben Carmona said in an email. “Even with this adjustment, our fees remain lower than those of other local providers and neighboring districts, and we remain fully committed to working with our families who experience financial hardships.”

There are 995 children enrolled in the after-school programs, two-thirds of whom pay full tuition, while about 7 percent, or 71 students, attend for free.

Since the 2021-2022 school year, enrollment in the programs has increased 70% thanks to a commitment to “increase access, enhance quality, improve academic outcomes and increase joy and wellness,” said Ruth Santos, director of the Somerville Family Learning Collaborative. At the Oct. 20 School Committee meeting, Santos indicated staffing has increased 60% and the number of students with scholarships has nearly doubled, while costs for families have stayed constant. The program now costs $4.5 million, versus $2.1 million in 2021.

That’s led the community school revolving account to, at times, operate at a deficit, said the school district’s interim chief financial officer, Robert Berretta. As recently as 2020, out-of-school reserves topped $1 million, which would cover about three months of expenses. In the years since, the district has operated the community school budget with a “structural deficit” that “eroded” the budget to its current state, Beretta said. By making the increase midyear, the district can raise $318,510 in additional revenue through the end of the school year without tapping into other out-of-school funding.

Since his hiring in the spring, Beretta “has been quietly doing a lot of work to restructure the district’s budget and accounting system,” said Ryan Williams, president of the Somerville Council of PTAs. “I’m very glad to see the district start to become proactive rather than reactive, especially as we enter an uncertain financial situation for schools.”

“Somerville families repeatedly ask for expansion of the after-school program, and I hope the Wilson administration and the new School Committee are able to find creative ways to find the space and staffing to expand out-of-school programming,” Williams said. Incoming mayor Jake Wilson was elected with other city officials in November and will be seated in January.

Keeping burdens low

In general, Somerville families seem accepting of the increases, School Committee vice chair Sarah Philips said at a Nov. 3 meeting, but there are parents – she mentioned a mom of three children, including two in kindergarten – for whom paying $20 more a week “is a huge burden.”

Furthermore, charging sliding-scale families the additional $20 a week would have amounted to only $10,000 more for the school district, so the superintendent did not recommend it, according to his remarks at the meeting.

Requests for reduced-cost or free after-program support should go to SPS Community Schools directly, with most aid considerations reviewed on a rolling basis, Carmona said via email.