Agenda - Council - 02/25/1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Date: To: From: Subject: February 11, 1997 City of Ramsey-Council and Staff Steve Kerr, Community Education Manager 1996-97 Community Education Funding-Anoka Hennepin Background: In August, I presented the attached memo regarding an expansion of services. These services would be delivered at Ramsey Elementary School and primarily impact youth of the community, pre-school through grade five. The additional funding would allow us to expand the existing staff position from 28 hours per week to 35 hours per week. Programming would increase from the current 32-40 activities per quarter to 40-50 per quarter. Proposal: The amount needed to fund the increase in service would be $4,435 for the youth program and $500 for teen programs. The total would be $4,935. Justification for the Recommendation: I am sure you are aware of the remodeling that occurred at Ramsey Elementary over the last year. The increase in the size of the facility has allowed the School District to serve Ramsey better and brought more of the students closer to their homes. The larger facility and the increased number of students have created a higher demand for services in the building. A few measures of that demand include (all data reflects fall quarter only): 1) The school enrollment has increased from 734 to 1,175. 2) Community organizations have increased their usage of the school from 11,649 contact hours to 21,372 hours. 3) In the fall, we offered more classes to children than we had agreed to with the City. This was done to meet anticipated demand as well as, assess potential demand. We were to have offered 32-40 programs based on the arrangement with the City. The results: -53 total programs offered -18 classes filled within two days -10 classes had waiting lists of 15 to 20 -5 classes were added to accommodate some of the waiting lists -695 students enrolled compared to 323 last fall -2 classes canceled due to Iow enrollment -4595 people served The second component is the teen program subsidy. We would like to experiment with some teen programming at Ramsey Elementary. We would begin building a teen center concept within the school. The first program effort would be to provide activities on Friday nights for middle school aged students.