“Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox. A reshuffling of contracts for New York City’s sprawling free after-school program has separated some schools from beloved, longstanding providers, sparking fury from parents, program staffers, and school administrators. The changes came as part of the city’s first attempt in years to re-bid contracts for community-based organizations, who get city funding to operate the COMPASS after-school program for more than 100,000 elementary and middle school students. Re-bidding the contracts allowed the city to expand the program by 10,000 seats and make long-needed changes to providers’ pay rates, which now come out to around $4,000 to $7,000 per student depending on age, city officials and providers said. But the new contracts, which were announced earlier this month and run through 2032, in some cases edged out providers who have been working with schools for more than a decade, and had the support of principals and families. In Manhattan, multiple middle schools that have long worked with the organization Manhattan Youth were assigned new providers starting this fall, according to a petition and joint letter from parent leaders across the schools. “Making sweeping changes to successful and trusted afterschool programs without transparency, stakeholder engagement, or demonstrated justification does not serve students or families,” wrote the parents, some of whom staged protests Thursday afternoon. It wasn’t immediately clear how many programs citywide were turned over to new providers. Chantal Alba, a spokesperson for the Youth and Community Development Department, said “most” of the 927 schools with after-school contracts are continuing on with their existing provider – 71 schools are opening a program for the first time next year. “DYCD understands how important long-standing afterschool relationships are to families, and we recognize that a change in provider can feel disruptive,” Alba wrote. “These transitions are the result of a standardized competitive process, not a reflection on the value a particular organization has brought to a school community.” Providers who lost out on contracts at schools where they’ve been successfully working for years said they’ve gotten no clear explanation on why they weren’t selected. “We’re all very confused,” said Manuela Garcia, a program director for the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services at Louis Armstrong Middle School in East Elmhurst, Queens. Garcia’s program has operated an arts-focused after-school program at Louis Armstrong for 12 years, but lost out to a larger provider in this year’s contract re-procurement. “We did everything we were supposed to do,” she said. “Why are we being uprooted … to bring somebody else brand new to start over? New rules, little transparency In past years, providers had to secure a signed agreement from a principal before applying for a contract at that school, giving the principal broad discretion to select a provider. This year, principals could rank multiple providers, according to people familiar with the process. In some cases, they didn’t get their top choice. “Despite our school clearly identifying Manhattan Youth as the best fit for our community, a different provider was selected,” Computer School principal Jessica Shalom wrote to families last weekend, according to a copy of the letter shared with Chalkbeat. In seeking “clarification” from the Department of Youth and Community Development, Shalom said she “received dismissive responses that failed to acknowledge the depth of our current partnership with Manhattan Youth and the significant impact this potential change would have on our community.” Alba, the DYCD spokesperson, said more than 80% of principals received their first- or second-choice provider. Asking principals to rank programs allowed “more providers to participate … while still ensuring principal input is reflected,” she said. “DYCD must balance principal preferences with competitive scoring, capacity, and provider diversity,” Alba added. Severing longstanding relationships between providers and schools isn’t the only concern. Providers that are losing their contracts after the summer might struggle with retaining staff for Summer Rising, the city’s free summer program, said Nora Moran, policy and advocacy director at United Neighborhood Houses, an umbrella organization for several after-school organizations. She also wondered if the city’s notoriously slow contracting process would be able to meet the demand of having to certify so many new contracts for the fall. Still, the outdated contracts needed to be rebid, Moran said. And throughout the bidding process, the city had been open about wanting to diversify the pool of providers. While that’s a “good goal,” Moran said, it’s a “hard situation all around” because there are “always winners and losers” in a procurement process. “In some circumstances, these are really longstanding relationships, and so for certain schools, it is going to be a really big change,” she said. “Also, there’s new opportunity that comes with new providers, and some organizations are happy that they’re going to have the chance to expand their work.” Particular after-school programs are often a draw for families Families at some of the schools switching providers say the shift could significantly diminish their kids’ school experience — and undercut one of the reasons they chose the school in the first place. Alexandra Cardasis, whose daughter is in sixth grade at Simon Baruch Middle School, compared Manhattan Youth’s vast offerings, including theater and a multi-school sports league, to “a suburban experience at a large school.” “When you’re trying to keep like families in the public school system,” she added, “these are the things that make people want to come.” Families at Simon Baruch are trying to fight back, said Gilberte Lal, president of the school’s parent-teacher association, who planned to deliver about 400 student letters to the city. “The anxiety that these children feel wondering what’s going to happen to their mentors, it’s heartbreaking,” said Lal. Out of the school’s roughly 1,000 students, all but about 36 participate in Manhattan Youth’s array of 50 weekly offerings, from ceramics and nail art to orchestra, drama, and Dungeons and Dragons. The program also offers many teams that are part of the Middle School Athletic League — that would cost the school about $200,000 to cover next year, Lal said. The program has 90 staffers, three of whom are full-time, and many of whom are paraprofessionals or teachers at the school. The new provider, the Imogen Roche Foundation, which focuses on social-emotional health , has mainly worked with elementary schools, raising concerns among families whether it can quickly scale up a sophisticated program for middle schoolers. At Louis Armstrong, an arts-focused middle school in Queens, the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services over years built a theater-based after-school program that perfectly fit the school’s needs, said Garcia, the program director. The program has developed partnerships with professional theater organizations, worked closely with school staff to build a shared performing arts program, and routinely connects students to outside services like therapy, access to food, and healthcare, Garcia said. She’s now working on gathering documentation she can use to support an appeal of DYCD’s contract decision. “This has been really devastating,” she said, “and I’ve taken it upon myself to organize the community.” Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org .
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