County Cuts Bloomingdale After-School Program

A decision by Hillsborough County commissioners Wednesday to cut the parks budget leaves a number of Bloomingdale parents with no after-school care for their children this fall.

They are among 1,800 parents affected July 27 by the commission's decision to end the Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department's after-school program.

County commissioners voted 4-3 to cut the after-school program, saving the county $7.5 million a year.

Commissioners Les Miller, Ken Hagan and Victor Crist voted against eliminating the program at Wednesday's meeting, saying they feared there were no inexpensive alternatives for the low-income parents who previously enrolled their children in the after-school program.

Parks department director Mark Thornton has suggested there are plenty of after-school programs to meet the needs of the county's children, including programs at the nonprofit YMCA and Boys & Girls clubs along with the school district's HOST program (Hillsborough Out of School Time) programs run by county school district.

Local HOST programs are available at:

• Mulrennan Middle School, 4215 Durant Rd., Valrico
• Alafia Elementary School, 3535 Culbreath Rd., Valrico
• Randall Middle School, 16510 Fishhawk Blvd., Lithia
• Bevis Elementary School, 5720 Osprey Ridge Dr., Lithia
• Boyette Springs Elementary School, 10141 Sedgebrook Dr., Riverview
• Buckhorn Elementary School, 2420 Buckhorn School Ct., Valrico
• Cimino Elementary School, 4329 Culbreath Rd., Valrico
• FishHawk Creek Elementary School, 16815 Dorman Rd., Lithia
• Kingswood Elementary School, 3102 S. Kings Ave., Brandon
• Lithia Springs Elementary School, 4332 Lynx Paw Trail, Valrico
• Pinecrest Elementary School, 7950 Lithia-Pinecrest Rd.
• Riverview Elementary School, 10809 Hannaway Rd., Riverview
• Barrington Middle School, 5925 Village Center Drive, Lithia
• Burns Middle School, 615 Brooker Rd., Brandon.

At a public hearing on the county budget last week, however, parents complained that those programs are either already filled up or are not located as close to home as the parks programs.

Currently, 41 county recreation centers have after-school programs where parents pay up to $18 to $135 a week, depending on income.

With its vote yesterday, the commission agreed to close 30 of the county's 42 recreation centers that currently have programmed activities, including the and the Riverview Recreation Center.

The commission also agreed to construct or expand 12 centers. However, those centers would not have traditional after-school programs. Instead, they would have special after-school classes for children ranging from dance to martial arts.

Under the plan, the Northdale, All People's and University Center rec centers would remain open as they are. The county will expand the Westchase, Town 'n Country, Thonotosassa, Brandon, Gardenville and Ruskin centers. And the county will build new centers in Keystone, Progress Village and at the FishHawk Ranch Sports Complex. However, construction could be 10 years down the road.

Thornton said the plan would increase the total square footage of programmed space from 242,000 square feet to 250,000 square feet, and he said a remaining centers would be within a five- to 15-minute drive of all residents.

The plan will reduce staffing at county parks from 534 to 391 full-time positions.

Staff at the Bloomingdale West Recreation Center declined to comment on the commission's decision. A staff member said longtime facility manager Donna Clouse is no longer at the Bloomingdale center.

Under the plan approved by commissioners, the recreational centers that will no longer have county-programmed activities still will be available for rent by the community.

The Bloomingdale center at 3940 Canoga Park Dr., Brandon, currently offers a wide range of programmed activities including ballet and jazz dance classes, acrobatics, lacrosse, T-ball and a middle school teen night.