PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend School District has signed an agreement with the Jefferson County branch of the Olympic Peninsula YMCA to offer intramural co-ed sports and after-school activities for fourth- through eighth-graders at Blue Heron Middle School this year.
Jeni Little, the Y’s program director, will be based in an office at Blue Heron at 3939 San Juan Ave. with volleyball, cross-country, basketball and wrestling — as well as such classes as cooking or chess club — offered through the program.
“We’re really grateful to the Y for stepping in and working with us,” said Tom Kent, interim principal and former athletic director at Blue Heron.
“This is going to be fun.”
Sports at Blue Heron were discontinued in June after the end of the 2010-2011 school year, said Kent, ending some 15 years of sports at the school.
The school had offered co-ed cross-country and girls volleyball in the fall, boys and girls basketball and co-ed wrestling in the winter, and track in the spring.
Eliminating sports saved the school district “in the neighborhood of $60,000,” Kent said.
Now, the school is “in partnership with the local Y to run programs” in an after-school program that is “evolving” as it begins its first year, Kent said.
Kent and Little said a survey was taken last spring to see what students were interested in learning.
“Cooking, martial arts and fencing were high on the list,” Little said.
The after-school program will run Mondays through Thursdays after school, she said.
That includes early-release Wednesdays.
“In our school district, we are trying something new,” Kent said.
“Every Wednesday, every school will let classes out two hours early.”
The YMCA will provide programs at Blue Heron School, ranging from tutoring to chess to cooking to sports — or anything else that is in demand and possible to do.
Fees will be $65 to $75 for a six-week program, according to Jim Funaro, the YMCA branch director.
But scholarships are available for students who cannot afford the fees, Kent said.
“We hope to involve as many kids as possible,” he said.
The Y is also working on the possibility of seventh- and eighth-grade teams competing with other schools, Little said.
“We are still part of WIAA sports,” she said, referring to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.
Schools that are members of WIAA can compete with other member schools.
Intermural sports are not part of the present plan, Kent said.
“We’re not in the business now of building those teams so they can go play” other schools, he said.
“We’re focused more on what we can do within the walls of our own school.”
But because the school is a member of WIAA, parents and coaches can arrange such intermural matches on their own.
Having a weekly after-school program at Blue Heron blends well with the YMCA’s Building Futures program, where mentors meet weekly with students for activities.
“Everybody will have a time and a space,” Funaro said.
According to Funaro, the YMCA started planning in June how to offer sports at Blue Heron when word started circulating that the program would be cut.
Taking on sports and the after-school classes is a big jump, he said, but it’s important to the community.
“This is what we do in many communities,” Funaro said of the Y’s sports programs.
“We work with community leaders to fill gaps.”
Funaro said Kent was a major partner in putting the offer together and helped the Y see what was lost and what gaps needed to be filled.
The Y uses volunteer coaches and class leaders as much as possible, Little said.
So far, she has two volunteer volleyball coaches, two volunteer cross-country coaches and a volunteer basketball coach.
“People are stepping forward,” she said.
Funaro said the Y is hoping to work with other organizations that want to get involved in the school programs.
Next June, the Soroptimists International of Port Townsend/East Jefferson County are planning to put on a triathlon for students at Mountain View Commons, Little said.
It will consist of a 100-meter swim, a three-mile bicycle ride and a run of slightly less than a mile.
Jefferson Healthcare hospital and the Port Townsend Marathon Association are working with the Soroptimists to put on the event, which organizers have been dubbed the Soroptithon.
“We’ll gear spring training for that,” Little said.
The partnership is based on a model that other middle schools in the nation have put into practice, Kent said.
“Of course, there was disappointment when the sports program came to an end,” he said.
“But it’s not unusual around the country.”
The school and the YMCA is seeking feedback on activities that should be offered as well as volunteers to teach and support the programs, Kent said.
“We’re getting a lot of people who have expressed an interest in helping out,” Kent said, whether it’s chess club or homework club or tutoring.
For more information or to volunteer, phone Little or Funaro at 360-385-5811.
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Jennifer Jackson is a freelance writer and photographer living in Port Townsend. To contact her, email jjackson@olypen.com.
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.