The Douglas-Coffee County Boys and Girls Club will close its doors – hopefully just temporarily – in July. The 21st Century Learning Grant offered by the Georgia Department of Education funds the Boys and Girls Club. The grant is awarded every five years; Coffee County received the grant for the first time in 2014 and again in 2019. Such was not the case in 2024.
The Coffee County School System oversees the grant application. At the April 25, 2024 board of education meeting, Dr. Morris Leis, school superintendent, announced that the grant had been denied. “The 2024 21st Century Community Learning Center’s grant application for Coffee County has been denied, which leads to the discontinuation of funding for the Boys and Girls Club of Coffee County Region and After School program. The school system is unable to provide the same level of funding to support the Boys and Girls Club After School program that was provided by the 21st Century Learning Center’s grant. The Boys and Girls Club of Coffee County will continue to operate until the current grant funds are exhausted, which will be approximately July,” stated Dr. Leis.
The superintendent added that he called the powers that be in Atlanta and pleaded with them to reconsider. However, he said, he was told there was nothing else that could be done. The state will accept another round of applications in October. “We’re going to reapply then. At this point, we’ll be meeting with the Boys and Girls Club board and they’ll be providing a plan moving forward. We will pursue it in October when it comes around again,” he said.
In a letter dated April 30, 2024, Boys and Girls Club chair Michael Lott and program director Lynn Adams echoed Dr. Leis’s statement and assured parents and guardians that Coffee County would reapply for the grant later this year. “Despite this unfortunate setback, the Boys and Girls Club of Coffee County Region is committed to reapplying for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant at the next opportunity. In the meantime, the Boys and Girls Club of Coffee County Region will continue to operate the after school program until the current 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant funds are exhausted. The summer program will operate through July 12, 2024,” Lott and Adams stated in the letter.