According to Emporia Director of Rec Operations Amanda Gutierrez, the most frequently asked questioned she has received in recent months has been in regards to the recently resurrected RecXtra program.
With that in mind, RecXtra was the main focus of Gutierrez’s monthly report to the Emporia Recreation Commission during its regular meeting Monday evening. According to Gutierrez, for September the program had 243 students registered while October saw a slight increase with 246 registered.
Exact figures were not available, however, Gutierrez believes those numbers are roughly on par with the numbers being reported from the Boys and Girls Club before the club terminated its MOU with USD 253 Emporia earlier this year.
The school with the largest registration is Village Elementary with 68 students while the building with the fewest registrations is Logan Avenue Elementary with 22. As KVOE News has reported previously, the district did receive a three year $375,000 commitment from the Boys and Girls Club as part of a separation agreement earlier this year which is being used to fund the RecXtra program.
That commitment is being paid in $125,000 installments which will serve as the operating budget for RecXtra for at least the next three years. Looking at the current financials, Gutierrez says she believes the program will only use a third of that funding, barring any major unexpected expenses, adding she feels this will extend the life of the program significantly.
Speaking of the future of RecXtra, the district and ERC currently only have a one-year contract between them, however, Gutierrez says she is very willing to see that partnership extended for a much longer period of time.
In other business Monday, Gutierrez reported on the status of the commission’s $500,000 in employee tax credits which the commission voted to return to the Internal Revenue Service two weeks ago.
As was reported two weeks ago, the ERC voted to return the credits, which were granted during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it turned out the rec center did not qualify for them as originally believed. The $500,000 recently returned was a portion of of more than $700,000 in tax credits originally allocated, as Gutierrez noted they were awarded credits for three quarters of 2020 and three quarters of 2021.
The recently returned $500,000 was the allocation from 2021 with the 2020 allocation having already been returned.
In separate matters, the ERC received updates on credit card processing companies, discussed an audit and fielded the final 2025 report for operations at the Jones Aquatic Center. The ERC is next scheduled to convene in November.
