By Joaquin Aguilar-Flores, KFCS
Klamath Falls City Schools’ after school program, 21st Century Community Learning Center, heard positive news Friday which will help the program for the next five years.
KFCS 21st CCLC Supervisor, Bill Patterson, was notified by the Oregon Department of Education the after-school program was awarded a five-year grant.
“On behalf of the Oregon Department of Education, we are delighted to inform you that Klamath Falls City Schools has been identified as eligible for funding in the amount of $500,000 for the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC), Title IV-B, federal grant,” Liz Ross, Federal Systems Team Director, said in an Intent to Award.
The funds will include $2.35 million dollars over the next five years. In all, over 900 kindergarten through 12th grade KFCS students, each year, will participate in programs funded by the grant.
Additionally, this will include funding for elementary after-school activities and sports, middle school sports, academic and enrichment activities, high school academic peer tutoring and enrichment activities, along with summer credit recovery programs.
KFCS 21st CCLC runs its elementary school activities and sports through The YMCA of Klamath Falls.
“This was a very competitive grant with school districts and non-profits from all over Oregon competing for the available funds. KFCS was awarded the maximum dollar amount available for the five-year grant,” Patterson, said.
Patterson and his 21st CCLC staff recently finished its Summer Enrichment Camp, which saw over 600 students participate, with over 1,500 registrations in total.
It was a possibility the Summer Enrichment Camp might not have taken place but Patterson was persistent to make it happen once again.
“We used leftover money from the COVID years to spend on this year’s summer camps.” Patterson said. “We knew we wanted to offer the summer camps again for our students because there was a need for it.”
Patterson knows the after-school program has been a benefit to KFCS students after Klamath Learning Center’s summer credit recovery program had many students participate.
The summer credit recovery program reached 131 KLC students, which included 96 credits being recovered.
Patterson has been a part of KFCS since 2018, a year before the after-school program’s hope of earning its last five-year grant but was not part of the grant process.
“This (21st CCLC grant) is a big plus for everyone. We have a Klamath Union High School tutoring program which had 170 students who took advantage of that,” Patterson said. “The grant was an undertaking. We started it in May, with it being over 70 pages long. The grant is going to help so many students and we are excited for the next five years of this program.”
