BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP: Alliance reports on community projects

By Amber Cox, Special Writer
   BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — The Community District Alliance (CDA) is continuing to provide before- and after-school programs, Adult Basic Skills GED and ESL Civics programs and a number of summer programs for the community.
   Originally founded in 1982 as the Community Education and Recreation Department, CDA has been operating as a self-sustaining entity since fiscal year 2001-2002.
   ”Since fiscal year 2001-2002 CDA has received no financial support or contributions from the Board of Education, the City Commission or Township Committee,” said Director Sandy Ewell at the Feb. 1 meeting of the Bordentown Regional Board of Education. “In other words no taxpayer dollars have been committed to support CDA programs for more than 10 years.”
   Revenue for the program is generated from tuition and fees, rental income and a grant from the Department of Labor for the Adult Basic Education GED/ESL Civics Program.
   CDA employs four full-time employees with benefits and up to 105 part-time professionals throughout the year.
   ”We provide important services for the district such as facilities scheduling and rentals and the successful management and oversight of the Performing Arts Center,” Ms. Ewell said. “In addition, we work in partnership with special services, summer basic skills, food service, the high school theater department, principals, administrators, teachers and other clubs and organizations throughout the district.”
   Ms. Ewell said that according to the final audit a surplus was shown for 2011.
   ”The surplus must be looked at strategically, besides being an indicator of our viability it is a planning and investment tool,” she said. “A surplus is a sign of our excellent fiscal and programmatic health and that CDA programs performed beyond expectation this past fiscal year.”
   The CDA team has begun to work on a three-year strategic plan to carry the program through 2015.
   ”The plan will be presented to the superintendent and then to the full board in the spring or summer of 2012,” Ms. Ewell said. “Developing the plan is a thorough and deliberate process that will help us understand where we are now and more importantly, where we’d like to be in the future.”
   CDA has begun to improve and refine a number of its programs.
   They recently reviewed and evaluated the emergency child care service that was implemented last year. This program provides emergency before- or after-school care for students if parents or guardians are in need of such.
   ”There are advanced registration requirements that must be met so that the child care team has all the information critical to the student’s health and safety while in our care,” Ms. Ewell said.
   CDA has also revamped its summer programs and focused on technology, teens, science and childhood obesity.
   ”We will expand summer programs, camps and activities,” Ms. Ewell said. “We will expand use of technology in our before- and after- school and summer recreation programs by investing in notebooks and reading and math applications and developing technology camps for students up to age 18.”
   Ms. Ewell said CDA will also maintain fee-based programs that are well below market costs when compared to other programs in the area.
   The popular swimming program is also returning this year and Shirley Fisher and her husband will be celebrated for providing 50 years of service to the community.
   ”Dr. Fisher and her team of seasoned and committed instructors provided over the years swim lessons to young and some of us who were not so young at every level provided by the Red Cross,” Ms. Ewell said. “In addition she has trained hundreds of life guards and water safety instructors and certified 20 times that number in CPR and first aid instruction.”
   New summer programs include kids cook camp, lacrosse, beginning Chinese, paleontology camp and Get Up and Move for Teens.
   For more information about CDA and its summer programs visit http://bordentown.k12.nj.us/departments.cfm?subpage=231142.