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After weeks of waiting, Fairfield school district receives grant for before and after-school program
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FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield school district received some good news about funding for its before and after-school program, whose future looked murky after the federal Department of Education refrained from releasing funds for it as expected on July 1.
The district learned on July 23 that about $150,000 in federal funding for the before and after-school program that had been held up for three weeks was finally approved. Then about a week later on July 31, the district learned that another $80,000 in federal grant money it was expecting to receive also came through after a monthlong review.
School board president Meghan Dowd Robbins said the board voted unanimously at its July board meeting to use money from a FLEX account to cover the before and after-school program for a year, if the federal grant did not come through.
“From the board’s perspective, we want to make sure this program continues next year,” she said.
The before and after-school program, now known as the Explorers Program, was already funded through the 2025-26 school year, according to its program director, Katie Boatright. Boatright said the funding at risk was for the 2026-27 school year, since the state of Iowa keeps a year of funding in reserve.
“This is not the first time our program has been under review and possibly on the chopping block for either reduced funding or to lose funding,” Boatright said. “I’m glad they [federal government] are realizing it has value and that they’re planning to keep it around, because a lot of parents rely on it.”
The district began accepting applications for the Explorers Program for the 2025-26 school year on Aug. 1, and the deadline to apply is Aug. 22. As of Aug. 4, Boatright had already received 95 applications, and the program normally serves 100 or more students, about 20 students per grade at Washington and Pence elementary schools.
The program has always been funded completely by federal grants, and began in 2018 as just an after-school program, before adding a before-school session in 2023. The morning program starts at 7:15 a.m. and is intended to get kids ready for the day, and includes activities such as reading books, doing puzzles, and breakfast.
The after-school program is longer and lasts two hours until 5:30 p.m., and three hours on Friday when it goes from the start of early dismissal until 4:30 p.m. Kids get to choose from doing a physical activity, art, games or STEM activity. The activities at the elementary schools are supplemented by frequent field trips to places like Jefferson County Park, Cambridge Rec Center and swimming pool, the Aviation Center in Ottumwa, the Carnegie Historical Museum, Fairfield Public Library, Jefferson County ISU Extension, and many more.
Boatright said her staff of 25 make the program run smoothly, including school district employees plus part-timers who work a few days per week, and maintain other jobs off-site.
In addition to the grant for the Explorers Program, Wigle said the district’s summer school was another program that had been waiting on grant money being released by the U.S. Department of Education. Summer school is for students in grades kindergarten through fourth, and meets from 8:30-11:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday.
“The focus is on continuing to narrow the gap for students that might be struggling with learning connected to literacy,” Wigle said. “We’ll have anywhere from 75 to 120 kids involved depending on the year, and we had just over 80 this summer.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
