First Steps and FAQs
Thank you for considering Arts and Athletics as your afterschool programming provider!
The mission of Arts and Athletics is to help make school communities stronger, both by providing high quality, affordable childcare and by offering electives that make children feel more engaged in the educational process.
This page and the included links are meant to provide you with useful information about our programs and to promote discussion and debate about out-of-school-time programming. You can create your Arts and Athletics account by visiting https://artsandathletics.org and clicking the red button in the upper right corner labeled “Manage Account.” Once you’ve created an account, you will then be included in all future email correspondence…including updates, information about class offerings, and announcements about upcoming registration dates. (FYI, registration for Fall 2023 typically begins in June!)
This page includes a lot of information that is of particular interest to new families, but we have also compiled two other FAQ pages (for additional research) that will help explain our philosophy, our approach, and our vision for out-of-school-time programming. The first of the FAQ pages is for general questions and the second focuses on parents’ questions about the first days and weeks of their child’s afterschool participation.
General FAQs: https://artsandathletics.org/faq/
First Week FAQs: https://artsandathletics.org/first-week-faq/
Sample Site Offerings: https://artsandathletics.org/additional-info/afterschool-classes/?loc=9
Structure of the Arts and Athletics Program
We have three cycles per year…fall, winter, spring…of about 12 weeks each.
Each is divided into an early session (from dismissal to 4:20) and a late session (from 4:20 to 5:40) and pickup should be completed by 6pm, when the afterschool permit expires.
There are two basic price points: Enrichment classes like sports and music and dance and art…which are $400 for one day (Mondays) for the twelve week cycle. The other price point is Study Time/Supervised Activity, which is $125 for one day for the twelve week cycle and reduced to $60 ($3.75 per hour) when you sign up for five days a week.
I’ve attached a screen shot of a full schedule at PS 9. Note that Musical Theatre on Monday is extended time (to 5:15pm) so the charge is $425.
Some cycles, there are fewer Mondays than Thursday (always between 10 and 13 class meetings) but it averages about 11.5 classes meetings. We price classes the same to simplify accounting.
Broken down, it’s $168 per week, $34 per day…about $10 per hour. At that rate we can provide scholarships to families who have need and we can ensure that it’s a program that is accessible to everyone.
I’m sure there will be more questions. Keep them coming! I’ll try to answer them all as quickly as I can. Send inquiries to info@artsandathletics.org and include your school site name or school number in the subject line.
Welcome Letter
Thank you again for considering Arts and Athletics!
Continuing a thirty-year tradition of afterschool begun at PS 9 in the early 1990s, our offerings include a range of sports, including running, soccer, basketball, fencing, and our Selected Sports class, which exposes children to these sports and many others, and well as visual and performing arts that promote and develop children’s creativity.
With small class sizes, a wide range of class offerings, and highly qualified instructors, Arts and Athletics afterschool helps children cultivate their love of learning, encouraging them to engage in their school experiences today, but hopefully also altering their perspective on the role of education in their lives in the future.
Afterschool programming can have a tremendous positive impact on a child’s development and the Arts and Athletics staff are devoted to that project.
This year has been challenging for all of the reasons you might expect…re-establishing relationship and routines, incorporating COVID-inspired health and safety protocols, revamping our hiring and training processes, and rebuilding our staff of specialists. We think the process has made us stronger and we look forward to sharing what we’ve learned with all of you.
If you have comments or questions, please feel free to reach out to me.
Best regards,
Neil
Neil Fitzgerald, Director
neil@artsandathletics.org
917-279-7345