By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

EUSTIS – Voters in Strong and Eustis will decide Saturday whether to fund after-school programs in their elementary schools.

The extended-day program in all SAD 58 elementary schools except Strong was discontinued in mid-January after federal grant money dried up.

Articles on Saturday’s town meeting warrant will ask Strong voters to decide whether to assume oversight responsibility of the program and raise an additional $1,000 to keep it running.

In Eustis, voters will be asked at their town meeting, also on Saturday, whether to fund a program at a cost of $20,000.

The SAD 58 after-school program, which provides academic help and enrichment activities, was funded three years ago with a federal grant of $5 million for three years, said Superintendent Quenten Clark said. This year’s programs had been running on carry-over money from the last year of the grant, but an auditor found the money had been drained.

When school board members were informed of that Jan. 11, they voted to discontinue the program.

“The school district is not going to do it,” Clark said in January. He said he couldn’t comment on individual community’s plans to keep the programs running.

“I hope they pull it off,” he said of Strong organizers’ attempts to keep the program running.

So far, Strong’s program has remained open by using student fees and raising nearly $1,500 in local donations. Liz Reed, former coordinator for the Strong program, asked selectmen in January if the town would be willing to assume oversight of the program, which serves kindergarten through eighth-graders. Selectmen supported the idea in theory, she said, but had some reservations.

The elementary school in Stratton village in the town of Eustis has not been so fortunate. If Elena Frost has anything to say about it, that program will return.

Frost coordinated the Stratton Elementary School’s program before it was shut down. She said Thursday that the program served about 37 students in grades three through eight, and as many as 49 on any given day. That’s about a third of the school enrollment.

Employees assisted students with homework and supervised the recreational activities.

“It helped them so much and raised their self-esteem,” said Frost. Children went to their school classes everyday with homework completed, relieving some of their worries, she added.

Parents were able to spend time with their kids on other things, rather than focusing on homework, said Frost. She said detention for incomplete homework has increased since the program’s demise.

People would like to have this program, she said, but some feel the three employees’ salaries are too high.

“We’re not just baby sitters,” she said. Employees need to be able to help students with homework up to eighth-grade levels.