Proposal for Irvington PTA Funding 

Organizer: Amanda Torrey 

Proposal: Fund After-School Activity Scholarships for the Spring Term 2023 

Estimated Costs: 

Registration period for Spring Term will be March 12-24th? (Before Spring Break) 20-25 Scholarships for After School Activities 

Total $5,000 

Objective: To create more extracurricular learning opportunities for Irvington students who may need scholarships for after school activities. Currently we have after school activities that include Arts (Visual art classes, Drama Club, Rock Dojo, Tumble & Groove), STEM (Lego Explorers, Chess club, Electronic Music Club) and Physical Education (Girls on the Run, Tumble & Groove, Hoops Basketball). We already spent our allocated funding for the 2022-2023 school year, plus some, and anticipate a similar amount of need & participation for the Spring term. 

Considerations and opinions: These activities are of enormous benefit to students and parents as they are run by high quality instructors and students can easily transition to on-site activities that are approachable and fun for all levels. Elementary years are such an important time for kids to explore a wide variety of hobbies and activities. It can be super challenging for families to juggle the demands of multiple weekly activities and providing them on-site and right after school makes this SO much easier and more feasible. Not only that, but kids get to participate in activities with school friends, in my experience, creating more willingness to try new things! We have a wide range of programs that we hope to continue expanding but those programs have to meet minimums in order to run. In this way scholarships help not only to provide these activities to students who may not be able to otherwise afford them, but they help ensure that the activities can run for all students. Lastly, as a PTA we have committed in a big way to equity and inclusion, and these scholarships go a long way to creating more equal opportunities for our students. Also we currently have outlined that kids who qualify for free and reduced lunch can receive one scholarship per term. Without approval of more funds for Spring we will not be able to follow through with that expectation. 

Financial Implications: The $5,000 cost will be deducted from our operating budget of $187K Which is roughly 2.7 percent of the overall budget 

Funding: Activity providers have not been requiring a deposit, so scholarships are paid from PTA funds as needed during the registration period.