YMCA Makes Pitch to Take Over After School Programs

Wyckoff middle school students may soon see an expanded offering of extracurriculars, according to a pitch by the Wyckoff YMCA to take over after school programming at Eisenhower.

Superintendent Richard Kuder said that under new state regulations, the district would have to cover medical exams for intramural participants at the school, an added burden that the nursing staff will not be able to handle.

“We need to relook at how we organize our intramural sports program,” Kuder said Monday night, adding that though the school will maintain some of the programs, the district reached out to the YMCA to explore ways the organization could fill the after school void.

“As a significant asset in our community for our youth, we wanted to see if there was a way to partner with them,” he said.

According to a presentation by representatives of the YMCA, that partnership would go beyond sports, using the organization’s resources to deliver a variety of extracurricular activities that both they and Kuder stressed would not copy or detract from programs already offered at the school.

“Though it hasn’t been determined yet what offerings will be available,” YMCA associate director Joyce Kwiatkowski said, the organization is interested in seeing language and arts programs in addition to sports.

“Customizing programs for every child’s interests would certainly be our approach,” she added.

The organization, she said, comes equipped with 400 staff members trained in childcare and bullying prevention, and experienced in providing services to children, including through an arrangement with the Mahwah Board of Education to provide kindergarten programs there.

The YMCA hopes to begin programming in September, with four six-week sessions to run throughout the year. Participation would be fee-based, with scholarships available to families who can’t afford the program.

“We’re inclusive, not exclusive,” said Pat O’Hagan, a sports coach employed by the Y. “We have something for everybody.”

He said that the benefit of the organization’s sports programs is that, similar to intramural sports, they encourage broad participation, with offerings for both advanced athletes and beginners.

The organization said it would also offer programming for district staff, including Yoga and Zumba classes.

In response to a question about whether the district had looked at other vendors to take over the after school programming, Kuder responded that the Y’s existing relationship with the schools and the lack of expense to the district led the board to zero in on the organization.

Though the programs would still need to be developed over the summer, executive director Joy Vottero reiterated that the Y would look into a variety of the program’s looking ways to supplement rather than replace the programming already in place at Eisenhower.

“None of our classes,” she said, “would compete with any of the existing clubs or any of the enriching programs already in place at the school.”