By Dana Klosner-Wehner
The program’s county funding is being cut by half, its executive director, Pat Boyle, said. Gateway also receives financial support from the federal and state governments and the Town of Hempstead. Without that additional funding, it would have to close entirely. The program is losing $144,000 in county money.
The program serves first- through sixth-graders throughout the school district. For three hours after school, students do homework, get a snack, play outside and take part in activities including karaoke, arts and crafts and board games. Parents now pay $125 for the year, though the fee is waived if a family can’t afford it.
Gateway is a version of the after-school program started 30 years ago in the old Elmont library with 20 to 30 children. With a slowly but steadily growing number of single-parent households and others in which both parents had to work, the program expanded from there.
“What are these kids going to do?” said Boyle, who is fighting the cut. “Go home to an empty house? Their parents still have to work. What if there are five or six sixth-graders that go home to one house. Do you think they’re going to sit down and do their homework? They’re going to get into mischief. What if Daddy leaves the liquor cabinet unlocked and they start drinking? Or what if one of them puts on a pot of mac and cheese and forgets about it and burns the house down? You can’t take 400 kids and send them home to a situation they’re not used to.”
The only other option for these families is that a parent stop working, Boyle said. There’s a good chance that such a family would have to seek public assistance. “If three parents go on public assistance, there goes the $144,000,” Boyle said.
Gateway Youth Outreach is also losing 75 percent of the funding it uses for violence-prevention, gang awareness and bullying-prevention programs.
“The gang-awareness program is geared toward the age of the children,” Boyle said. “The fact is there are people in Elmont that are in gangs. We’re talking about the Bloods, the Crips and the MS-13s. They mostly do their business outside of Elmont. We work to break down myths about gangs — that a gang is like a family. The gang is just there to make money. Some of these kids have older siblings in gangs. We’re hoping they don’t emulate the actions of their older siblings.”
About 110 parents and children from Gateway took part in a rally last month on the steps of the Nassau County Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola, at which they protested the funding cuts.
“This is not a done deal,” Boyle said. “I’m going to fight as hard as I can. I’m not going to cower under a table. This is not fine.”
Mary Curtis, deputy county executive, said officials are not happy about the cuts. “These are not cuts we want to make,” Curtis said. “We would rather get other sources of revenue.”
The county now faces a $130 million deficit due to drops in sales tax revenue and interest rates as well as higher debts, all brought on by the recession, and has asked the state Legislature for approval to impose a cigarette tax, install stoplight to catch more drivers who run red lights and add a surcharge to traffic tickets. “We would like to see the revenue sources come through,” Curtis said. “We just don’t have the money this year.”
“Gateway Youth Outreach Services performs a vital function to the community, both in protecting our children in the after-school program and allowing their parents the dignity of working and knowing their children are safe,” said county Legislator John Ciotti (R) in a statement. “These cuts will result in many parents not being able to work or having children unsupervised. Both circumstances are outrageous, and I will fight to protect our children and allow their parents to continue working.”
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