New kid center would offer tutoring services
SUNSET PARK Responding to demands for more child services serving a less affluent part of town, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica is planning to build a second facility in the city.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica is proposing to build a 5,000-square-foot youth center at the southwest corner of the John Adams Middle School campus which could serve residents of both Sunset Park and Pico neighborhoods.
More than two years after officials from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District pledged up to $300,000 towards construction of the center, the project is finally showing some signs of life.
The California Department of Education recently conducted a preliminary review of the project and sent a letter to the school district, outlining the next steps it needs to take in order to eventually receive funding from the state. The letter, dated Feb. 21, states that when final plans are completed, a proposal outlining the project cost estimate and updated educational specifications must be submitted to the Department of Education.
State funding is estimated at between $700,000 and $800,000, according to Interim Chief Financial Officer Dr. Stephen Hodgson.
The Board of Education is expected to be briefed on the project at tonight’s meeting.
The Boys & Girls Clubs project is expected to cost around $2.6 million, with the organization having raised close to $1.5 million from private donations, said Megan Wadley, director of development for the Boys & Girls Club.
“When the project started, it started at $700,000 and two years of bureaucracy later, prices have gone up,” Wadley said.
After the facility is constructed, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica would assume responsibility for operational costs.
Construction currently hinges on when financing from the city and state comes through, Wadley said.
The city has received grant proposals from various organizations and city staff will not make a recommendation to City Council until mid-May, said City Hall spokeswoman Mona Miyasato. The grant recommendations are part of the city’s proposed budget.
Aside from its only fully functional club — on the 1200 block of Lincoln Boulevard — the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica operates after-school programs throughout the city, including at John Adams, Roosevelt, Will Rogers, McKinley, Grant and John Muir elementary schools; Edison Language Academy; Lincoln Middle School and Santa Monica High School.
It was two years ago when several members of the community approached the Boys & Girls Clubs about opening a before-and after-school facility in the area that was specific to the needs of the Pico Neighborhood, where there was more poverty and racial diversity, Wadley said. One of the biggest concerns was that the new facility be affordable for all children.
With about 60 percent of the students at John Adams Middle School on the free and reduced lunch program, the Boys & Girls Club saw a need to build a facility on the campus to service the neighborhood, Wadley said.
“An overwhelming number (of students), as compared to the district, are on free and reduced lunch, which means they can’t afford after-school child care,” Wadley said.
The new youth center would offer before-and after-school and lunchtime programs, with services including homework help, tutoring, college preparation and athletic programming. Also included in the facility is a tech center with a recording studio, a learning center with a library, game room, teen center and art room.
“The idea is that it’s safer to keep them right there [at school],” Wadley said. “There’s no chance to get distracted on the way to the club.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 19, 2007. Read the original PDF.