Playing Smart changelabsolutions.org | kaboom.org 32 bond money) and matched it with $1.1 million of its own. The district also used more than $1 million in state funds earmarked for public-private partnerships (via SB 1795), and secured almost $1 million of additional funding from several local private foundations to support the project. The local chapter of the American Youth Soccer Organization (drawing funds from the national chapter) also provided funds to support the project, as did the PTA, which also wrote letters of support to the school district and the foundations the partners had approached for grants. The new building opened six years ago. The school now uses the classrooms and gym at the new facility during school hours, and the Boys & Girls Club operates its own programs after school. The club and the middle school students have separate entrances to the facility – one part of the building is owned by the club, and the other part is jointly owned – but the school has access to the club portion of the facility when needed. Besides constructing the new building, this joint use project included renovating and “unlocking” outdoor athletic facilities at the middle school, making them available for unstructured community use during non-school hours. Restrooms were also built for community use; they are attached to the new gymnasium but can be left open even if the rest of the building is locked. In 2007, the school district’s Citizen’s Oversight Committee in Santa Clarita – a cross-section of the community, including school district staff as well as parents and other residents – issued a report calling the partnership with the Boys & Girls Club “a model for joint use,” citing examples of how the project has reduced the schools’ overall costs. Ultimately, the partnership was just “common sense,” Ventress says. “Why put a Boys & Girls Club five miles away because that’s where the property is cheap? The kids are already there at school. If you give them a big clubhouse on campus, they’ll show up.”
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