Weekly Media Roundup

“A popular after-school program for Tacoma middle-schoolers that faced the budget ax at year’s end won an 11th-hour reprieve Tuesday,” The News Tribune reports. The Tacoma City Council allocated $100,000 from its contingency fund to help fund the afterschool program through the rest of this school year. The program was struggling because it failed to win funding through Tacoma’s new competitive human services grant process. The group that administers the afterschool program said it plans to appoint a committee early next year to evaluate SPARX and determine whether it should be ended, continued as is, revamped or replaced with a new program in the next school year.

Wells Fargo is donating $1.5 million to help expand afterschool programs at Atlanta’s recreation centers. “The grant is Wells Fargo’s largest single gift to any group in Atlanta, and is designed to increase the involvement of nonprofits in tutoring and activities that, it is hoped, will keep kids away from gang recruiters and criminal activity,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Pilot programs are already in place and city officials want them to be the blueprint for afterschool education that includes physical fitness and community service.

 

Afterschool students from Telesis Academy of Science & Math and Giano Intermediate competed against each other in a "Next Iron Chef"-style competition. “Over the course of 10 weeks, students learned about food preparation, presentation techniques, culinary careers and more,” the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports. In the competition, each group of students had to make an appetizer, entrée and dessert without using any recipes. The five winners will eat dinner at the five-star White House restaurant in Anaheim and have the chance to meet a world renowned chef.