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The St. Joseph School Board of Education voted Monday night to eliminate the district’s Summer Explorers Program.
“It was not a part of the regular summer school program,” Jake Long, Acting Superintendent said. “It was a childcare program that took place after summer school was over.”
The cut comes because the district is no longer able to get reimbursement from the state for the program.
“We know it’s something that’s been around for awhile and we know it’s something that our community and our patrons have learned to utilize,” Long said. “But it was a paid program and because of it being a paid program that was the I would say trigger that would no longer allow the state to reimburse for it.”
It has been a program offered through the school district for around 20-years. The district said on average around 270 children participate in the program and paid $80 per week.
“It was going to become a pretty heavy financial burden on the district to still be able to offer that program but yet receive no state financial reimbursement for those students being there,” Long said.
The district will still continue to offer its regular K-12 summer school courses.
“It’s just one portion of the summer school program that we’re no longer offering,” said Joey Austin, Communication Dir. “All those other things that parents are used to those will still be offered.”
Austin said summer school catalogs with this year’s course offerings will be out soon.