The Emporia Recreation Commission has officially closed the books on fiscal year 2021 and subsequently opened the book on fiscal year 2022.
During their first of two meetings Monday evening, the board voted unanimously to officially close the 2021 fiscal year. Rec Director Tom McEvoy says this past year has seen a significant uptick in participation and programming over 2020.
According to McEvoy, they are not quite at the same level as fiscal year 2019, however, the increased participation and additional revenue coming to the rec center have put them on the right track.
During the ERC’s regular monthly meeting the board approved the 2022 fiscal year budget for publication. According to McEvoy the budget total comes out to $5.2 million with a general fund of $4.6 million.
McEvoy says there are a number of capital improvement projects planned for the coming year, however, they are still in the early planning stages. Additional details will be announced once plans are more finalized in the coming months.
In other business, ERC Assistant Director of Operations Amanda Gutierrez announced that RecXtra will continue for at least one more year, however, there will be some significant changes. RecXtra is a partnership between the ERC and USD 253 that has provided afterschool programming for students for the past ten years.
The future of the program recently became uncertain after it was announced that the school district had applied for a federal grant that, if approved, would have seen the creation of a program titled ArtXtra to provide fine arts-centered after-school programming in partnership with the Emporia Arts Council.
It was recently announced that the district did not receive the grant this year. The district is planning to reapply for the grant next year.
In the meantime, Gutierrez says RecXtra will be sticking around for the coming year thanks to a new partnership between the ERC, USD 253, the Emporia Arts Council and the Boys and Girls Club of Wichita. Gutierrez says the new partnerships may help to expand the program.
The program will be funded by the district with the use of COVID-19 relief dollars that stipulates the program must provide some sort of programming to address student learning loss brought about by the COVID-19 impact and the shift to online learning over the past year. The ERC will oversee the operational side of the program including the hiring of staff and programming.
Registration will be open for the program possibly by next week according to Gutierrez, however, the program will not begin until after Labor Day. For additional details contact the Lee Beran Recreation Center by calling 620-340-6300 or USD 253 Emporia schools at 620-341-2200.
The Emporia Recreation Commission will reconvene for its monthly meeting in August.
