Lafayette School Board Sends Counter Proposal to YMCA for After-School Program Rent

Parents who plan on putting their children in the YMCA after-school program will likely see a rise in tuition this coming school year.

On Thursday, the Lafayette County School District Board of Trustees reviewed a proposal from the YMCA during its monthly board meeting and the first meeting for new Superintendent Jay Foster.

The YMCA proposed to raise its weekly rate to $40 a week per student and asked the Board to consider reducing the amount the YMCA pays the school district for renting the school facilities at the Upper and Lower elementary schools. Faculty and staff would pay half, or $20 a week.

Previously, YMCA was paying the district about $8,000 a month to hold its after-school program on the LCSD campus.

The proposal asked the school to charge $5 per child per day a month for rent. On average, about 90 kids used the after-school program this past school year, which would amount to about $1,800 a month – a quarter of what the YMCA was originally paying.

Assistant Superintendent Suzanne Ryals told the Board that the request from YMCA was to help offset some of the loss the nonprofit organization experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Board member Jamie Anderson said he was hesitant to accept the proposal with a 75-percent reduction in the rent that’s paid to the district, especially when the tuition for parents is going up.

Ryals said the YMCA is also presenting the proposal to the Oxford School District for its consideration since the organization also provides Oxford’s after-school program.

Anderson made the motion to send the proposal back with a counter-proposal that would keep the raise in the weekly tuition and reduce the amount the YMCA would pay in rent by half to total $4,000 a month and then reevaluate the situation at the end of the first semester.

The motion was approved by the board unanimously.