photo by: Joselyn King

Sarah Gamble, left, supervisor of community based services for Youth Services System, and CFO Chris Sengewalt address Ohio County Board of Education members about how changes in state subsidies for before and afterschool care for students is significantly affecting funding for the programs at YSS.

WHEELING — Officials with Youth Services System Inc. say changes in how the agency receives subsidies for the before and afterschool care the program provides to young students has significantly reduced available funding, and that continuing the programs under the new subsidy system is “unsustainable.”

“We’re no longer under a financial strain,” said Chris Sengewalt, CFO of YSS. “We have a financial crisis.”

Sengewalt and Sarah Gamble, supervisor of community based services for YSS, spoke before Ohio County Board of Education members Monday night and asked for their support and assistance in continuing the program.

They explained YSS is no longer being reimbursed based on the number of students enrolled in their programs, but instead on each student’s actual attendance. Children enrolled don’t always attend the program on a daily basis or may only attend part of the day.

Gamble noted that they had been before the board in September 2024, telling them a financial strain was coming down the pike.

“There were discussions statewide then suggesting that some of the funding sources currently being utilized were going to be depleted in the coming months,” she said.

Fortunately, the YSS programs were sustained through both 2024 and 2025, she continued.

But last fall, the West Virginia Department of Health informed YSS that beginning Sept. 1 they could no longer bill for subsidies based on overall enrollment. They would instead need to base the billing on actual attendance.

YSS serves students attending Bethlehem, Elm Grove and Middle Creek elementary schools. In these schools, 52% of the students attending the before- and after-school programs are eligible for the subsidies, according to Gamble.

“We have to keep a spot for them full-time if we are full capacity,” she explained.

There are 49 students actively enrolled in the before and afterschool programs at YSS and another 16 on the waitlist.

There are 22 billing days in the month and a student may only attend two days, Gamble explained.

“Previously, we could bill for the 22 days. Now we can only bill for the two days they actually attended,” she said.

YSS receives an average daily subsidy of $14.50 per student who attends the program. Billing is also now being broken down into two-hour increments for billing purposes, Gamble said.

“We’re presenting this information to you in hopes that as a board you might actually support this program,” she said. “At the end of the day, the last thing we want to see is preschools closed. Parents depend on these programs to make it to work every day.”

Board president David Croft asked her if the funding for the current school year already had dried up, and she told him it had.

“Wow. That’s a shame. It really is,” board member Andy Garber said.

Gamble explained that for the month of September the amount of supplement would have been $7,377 under prior billing practices, but YSS was only able to bill for $1,091.

“So it is fair to say the current configuration is not sustainable?” Croft asked.

Gamble answered yes and Croft inquired what options they might propose to the board.

Gamble said Marshall County Schools provides YSS with “scholarship funding” and the school district is invoiced every month which helps to cover some of YSS’s cost.

“That allows us to keep the billing at a minimum for our families,’ she said. “The last thing we want to have to do is raise the rate for our families — which we already did last year.”

Croft asked if the board needed to make a choice and if it would help more to fund before- or after-school care.

“If we can’t sustain the program the way it is, my recommendation would be to offer before care,” she said. “Then we can support two-hour delay days.”

Sengewalt said YSS is seeking funding to help them finish out the current fiscal year while they seek a collaborative solution in the future.

Superintendent Kim Miller suggested the school district put together a task force consisting of Gamble and Raquel McLeod, student services director for Ohio County Schools, and others to review what other counties are doing and what is working elsewhere.

The matter will be reviewed by board members and placed on the agenda for their next meeting at 6 p.m. Jan. 12 at the board office, 2203 National Road, Wheeling.