Nahant after school program funding in question

NAHANT – An after school program that is not certified by the Department of Education and is not curriculum-based has come under fire for not being self supporting.One parent, who asked not to be identified, said he is very concerned about the childcare program utilizing town and school funds.”It’s not supporting itself,” he said. “It’s drawing money from the school and the town.”Barbara Deines, who runs the after school and summer program at the Johnson School, works 24 hours a week and has four other employees, who each work 17 hours a week. She admits the program is having financial difficulties, but said she doesn’t know how far in the red the program is. She said she also doesn’t know what accounts money has been taken from to cover the expenses of the after school program, which was authorized by the School Committee a decade ago and is supposed to be self supporting.Deines said the program ran into financial difficulty last July when the town stopped paying for her health insurance, which costs approximately $10,000 a year.”I didn’t realize my medical insurance was being deducted from our (after school) budget as of July 1 (2008),” she said.When asked how much income the after school and summer program generated and what the expenses were, Deines said she didn’t know.”I don’t have that information available now,” she said. “But we have always done a budget and we’re working on a budget for the fall.”When asked if she develops a budget for the academic year or fiscal year, which runs July 1 through June 30, Deines said only, “It’s complicated.”School Committee member Christine Kendall admitted there have been issues with the childcare program.”It operates under the umbrella of the school district,” she said. “I know there have been some issues this year and they have been told they have until August to straighten it out.”Superintendent Joseph Lisi said the program has been in place for approximately 10 years but there has been very little oversight.”It operates very close to a wash at the end of the year,” he said. “The teachers and program director spend whatever money comes in from tuition on operating the program. The concern that was raised is, where this program is supposed to be self funding, the town should not be paying for health benefits for the program employees. It should be paid for by the program, not the town.”Lisi said tuition receipts from the childcare program are set aside in a separate account and he confirmed the program was operating in the red.”All bills should be paid out of that account,” he said. “A small fee for building use comes out of that account also. But health care costs weren’t being paid out of that because there weren’t enough funds in it.”Lisi said he met with Deines, the town accountant and Town Administrator Mark Cullinan regarding the matter.”We found funds that could be used to pay the bills,” he said.Cullinan pointed out the school department budget is autonomous so the town has no oversight on how it spends its funds.”We do know the school is working hard to restructure the after school program to meet all the necessary budgetary requirements associated with it,” he said. “The school needs to make sure those costs are covered by income from the after school program.”Lisi admitted there has been little regulation or oversight of the program in the past but he said that is changing.”We have established a job description for the director,” Lisi said. “We established an advisory committee and have righted the ship.”