Parents at PS 94 in Norwood have grown accustomed to having a safe, constructive place for their children to spend after-school hours and it hasn’t cost them a dime. But Mayor Bloomberg is proposing to slash the after-school program, which would leave parents, 90 percent of whom are living in poverty, scrambling to find alternatives.

“This program is vital,” said PS 94 Principal Diane Daprocida of a program known as Out-of-School Time (OST). “Parents are able to work and know that their kids are safe and being productive. It would be a huge loss to the community.”

The after-school budget cuts, totaling $22.1 million, would slice into 172 programs citywide and reduce the number of subsidized slots available for child care centers. Locally, the programs at PS 94 and PS 8 in Bedford Park would be cut completely and programs at PS 20 and PS 95 would be shrunk.

But the PS 94 community is fighting back, sending letters from parents and students to Bloomberg and enlisting the help of local Councilman Oliver Koppell who has vowed to oppose the cuts.

“It is imperative that funds be restored to the Department of Youth and Community Development’s OST program,” Kopppell said in a statement. “Without this restoration, thousands of children in my district and throughout the city, will be deprived of the positive academic and recreational activities these programs offer, putting them at risk of engaging in negative behavior during these unsupervised hours.”

Koppell pointed to studies by the Department of Education showing that crimes involving youth usually occur between 3 and 6 p.m., the hours OST operates.

“The risk our community will see an increase in violence, vandalism, gang activity and drug use and alcohol abuse, as well as an upsurge in the number of latchkey children, is virtually inevitable with the closing of these after-school programs,” Koppell said.

Daprocida said the programs allow parents to focus on vital responsibilities like keeping food on the table and a roof above their child’s head.

It also offers parents flexibility in their jobs, Daprocida said, which is crucial in the Bronx, a borough that suffers from a 13.6 percent unemployment rate, the worst in the state. “This community is struggling so much with employment opportunities,” Daprocida added.

Yanire Montanez, who runs the after-school program at PS 94, knows firsthand the benefits of the program. As a parent of students at PS 20, where the program is threatened as well, Montanez said she doesn’t know how her family would have survived without it.

Montanez said they align their program with the curriculum taught during the day at PS 94, but with a creative twist. On a recent Thursday afternoon, second grade students were doing an art project in the lunchroom. They were making posters depicting a “recipe” for friendship: 1 gallon of nice, 2 gallons of love, plus some hugging, sharing and patience. Kids also spend time engaged in physical activity, a huge bonus in a borough known for its high rates of childhood obesity.

Montanez said she was in tears when she first heard the program was on the chopping block. It wasn’t just her job that was at stake, she said. “This is my baby,” she said. “I live here (in the area). This is our family. We’re basically second parents to these kids.”

Editor’s note: A version of this story in the May 17-30 print edition of the Norwood News.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.