Boys & Girls Club may be coming soon to Gentry

School board discusses use of school facility for after-school program

GENTRY — A Boys & Girls Club may be coming to Gentry to provide after-school activities and care for children at the Gentry Primary School.

Randy Barrett, superintendent of Gentry Public Schools, suggested to the school board on Aug. 15 the idea of a Boys & Girls Club at the primary school campus to help meet the needs of parents whose work keeps them from being there for their children when school gets out in the afternoons. He said having a Club in Gentry could help the school district keep students who might otherwise need to transfer out of the district to another school where an afterschool program is available.

Barrett said the Boys & Girls Club program could provide an after-school extension program on the primary school campus for students. He said the program would run from 3:15 each day until 6 p.m. Cost to parents to enroll children is only $20 per semester, he said.

Barrett said the program would use a classroom, the cafeteria and gym at the primary school, as well as the playground, but the program would not be a program of the Gentry School District. He said students enrolled would also receive tutoring and help with homework from students of John Brown University through the college’s work-study program.

All staff for the program would be screened and hired by the Boys & Girls Club and not the Gentry School District. Liability would also be the responsibility of the Boys & Girls Club and not the Gentry School District.

The board gave approval to allowing the Boys & Girls Club to move forward with trying to establish the program yet this fall. The possibility of applying

for grant funds to expand the program in the future was mentioned.

Barrett said a minimum enrollment of 50 students would be required for the program to come to Gentry, but that students enrolled were not required to attend every day.

An age range for students to enroll in the program was yet to be determined, Barrett said.

The possibility of running a shuttle bus from the intermediate school campus each day was suggested, and Jason Barrett, the school district’s transportation and maintenance director, indicated that could be arranged.

Randy Barrett said opening up the school to the after-school program was not to compete with businesses like ABC because the programs would be geared to a different clientele. He said the program could be good for the district in a time when schools are competing for students by trying to offer more options to students and parents.