Groups aim to keep Polk a neighborhood hub

CEDAR RAPIDS - Polk Elementary School said goodbye to its elementary students in May before relaunching as the Polk Alternative Education Center.

Now three community groups are coming together - with the Cedar Rapids school district's blessing - to bring as many as 150 of those kids and their families back to Polk before and after school.

The school board approved an agreement this week to allow the Boys & Girls Club, Young Parents Network and Tanager Place access to space in Polk for before- and after-school programs for neighborhood children.

Boys and Girls Club Executive Director John Tursi said the alliance was formed out of a desire to continue serving the  Polk neighborhood in the wake of the a school closing that was traumatic for some.

“There's a lot of kids going to be affected here,” he said. “We met and asked ourselves, ‘How can we help transition them to their new schools?'”

In addition to allowing the continuation - and, in some cases, expansion - of social services once offered at the elementary school, the deal represents a collaboration of three community non-profit groups with similar missions that encompasses almost the entirety of the day when school is not in session.

The Boys & Girls Club will provide neighborhood students with breakfast in the morning at Polk, from which kids attending Garfield, Arthur and Johnson elementary schools will be bused to their new schools. Students will return to Polk after school for activities lasting as late as 7 p.m., including dinner. The cost for these services will be $12 for the entire year, and scholarships are available for any family in need, according to Tursi.

Meanwhile, the Young Parents Network will move its classes and day-care program to Polk on Thursdays after school, the group's first permanent location since the Floods of 2008. The partnership allows the group - which specializes in 14- to 27-year-old parents with children up to 5 years old - to hand those families directly off to Boys & Girls club as they get older, Executive Director Brian Stutzman said.

“We've experienced a trend where families stay with us longer and have older children,” he said. “The concept of partnering with Boys & Girls Club and Tanager helps us provide seamless access.”

Tanager Place also will use space in the building for classes and counseling, allowing it to focus equally on prevention and treatment. Proximity to the other two community organizations will allow the group to more easily identify families that could benefit from its services.

All three agencies said the partnership would not be possible without the district's permission to use the space. It allows them to increase their services to the neighborhood surrounding Polk in the aftermath of its closure, said George Estle, Tanager Place CEO.

“The district is giving us a great opportunity for this space,” he said. “In that respect, I think we have a chance to do things above and beyond what the school was doing.”