Aurora looks to Boys and Girls Clubs for after-school, summer programs

The city of Aurora is considering partnering with the Boys and Girls Clubs of North Central Illinois for after-school and summer programs.

At one time, Aurora ran its own youth services in-house, but starting in 2010 after-school and summer programs were taken over by an outside organization, called Cities in Schools, according to Aurora Youth Services Manager Simon Rodriguez. That organization closed earlier this year, he said, so city staff are recommending the local Boys and Girls Clubs take over running those programs.

Rodriguez and representatives from the Boys and Girls Clubs recently presented the proposal to the Aurora City Council’s Public Health, Safety and Transportation Committee, which voted to recommend the agreement for approval. Now, the recommendation is set to go before the Committee of the Whole on Tuesday evening before heading to City Council for final approval.

Under the proposed agreement, the Boys and Girls Clubs would run after-school programs at six elementary schools in West Aurora School District 129 — Fearn, Freeman, Goodwin, Greenman, Hill and McCleery — plus all the elementary schools in East Aurora School District 131 including Benavides STEAM Academy.

That’s according to a presentation by Natalie Pawluk, Boys and Girls Clubs of North Central Illinois’ chief operating officer.

The after-school programs, available for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, would run through May 28, 2026, Monday to Friday, from school dismissal to 6 p.m., her presentation showed. Children in the programs would be participating in a variety of different activities that change hour-to-hour and day-to-day, she said.

While in the past city-sponsored after-school programs have been completely free for all students, the ones to be run by the Boys and Girls Clubs could potentially come with a cost, depending on parents’ level of income, according to Pawluk. However, her presentation showed that likely around 80% of children would be attending for free, and the maximum monthly cost would be $200 per child.

Unlike the after-school programs, summer camps would stay free for all participants, she said.

Those summer programs would be offered June 8, 2026, through July 30, 2026, and would run 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday to Thursday, according to her presentation.

Four different four-week traditional camps would be offered, each at a different school district. West Aurora’s would be held at Hill Elementary, East Aurora’s would be held at Allen Elementary, Indian Prairie School District 204’s would be held at Fischer Middle School and Oswego School District 308’s would be held at Homestead Elementary.

Plus, a city-wide theatre camp and a rotating downtown Aurora camp, each also four weeks long, would also be offered. Rodriguez said the downtown camp was actually started by the city’s Youth Services Division in 2022, but the Boys and Girls Club would be taking it over as a part of the agreement.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of North Central Illinois actually managed Aurora’s camps this summer, since Cities in Schools closed in the spring. Pawluk said it was a bit “fast and furious” but that the group met its goals, including having over 450 children attend programs.

The closing of Cities in Schools left a big gap in services, according to Rodriguez. To replace them, he said, city staff were looking for an organization that could provide both after-school and summer programing, that could manage multiple sites across the city, that offered a variety of activities, that could commit long-term to programs through diverse funding streams and that had established partnerships with local school districts, among other things.

Multiple organizations applied, but when ranked by staff across various categories, the Boys and Girls Clubs of North Central Illinois ranked highest, his presentation showed.

Cathy Russell, the organization’s CEO, said the Boys and Girls Clubs were started as a way to keep children off the streets and from doing things they shouldn’t be doing. Now, the organization works to provide children with an accessible, safe place to go that can meet their basic needs as well as help them with social and emotional learning, academics and workforce readiness.

The city is expected to spend no more than $583,000 on the one-year agreement. According to Rodriguez, the after-school portion of the cost would be paid with funds generated by the city’s tax on gaming, while the summer camps would be funded through the general fund.

The agreement has the option to be extended twice, each time for one year, Rodriguez’s presentation showed. He said that future years would cost the city less: no more than $507,000.

rsmith@chicagotribune.com