After School Enrichment Clubs – A PTO fundraising and community building enterprise

The following is a conversation that ClassroomParent had with Jessica Rosenthal, parent volunteer committee member of KIT Club Committee for the West Patent Elementary School in the Bedford Central School District in New York.

Kit Clubs are after school enrichment clubs that enhance student/family experiences at the school, while providing a fundraiser for the PTO.

We at ClassroomParent are always looking for creative ways that our customers increase family engagement and raise critical funds.

We've formatted the conversation in a series of questions and answers to help other schools/parent organizations understand what it would take if they wanted to offer similar experiences for their students.

What are the benefits to running these clubs/enrichment experiences?

There are many benefits. First, it is a community building enterprise. Students and families that may not otherwise interact, because they are in different homerooms and grades, are brought together. It also expands the value to families to be in our school. It gives another reason to interact with the school. It gives students access to something that they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to. It also provides a little more time for the student to be at the school, so an extra hour and a half of child care, thereby freeing the time of the parents. And it is a fundraiser for the PTO.

How many different clubs do you offer?

That depends. We have three regular sessions, one each in the fall, winter, and spring. This spring, we had around 18 clubs. This is typical for a regular session.

We also have mini-sessions which have fewer clubs.

The school is not large (250 students), so we offer fewer clubs/experiences to better ensure they get filled. Bigger schools could offer more, but then that also takes more management.

We know that some schools in neighboring areas offer only winter sessions, perhaps because other after school activities compete.

How long has the school/PTO been running clubs?

We started before Covid, then obviously had to stop. We started up again last school year.

Is it typical that the PTO organizes it?

As far as I know, in the district school and neighboring towns it is the parent organization that manages it.

Who typically runs each club/experience?

We use teachers and outside vendors. And sometimes parents.

How do you find teachers to run the club?

The principal asks the staff who are interested to complete a Google form if they want to run a club. The teachers get paid. Typically, they are paid for 2 hours, which includes the time of the program and an hour of prep time.

How do you find outside groups/vendors to run a club?

We have a pretty good catalogue of vendors from previous years.

But we also look at what neighboring schools are using. In some cases, it may start with a suggestion from a parent that had a good experience with their child at a venue or experience outside of school.

The other schools are also sharing their experience and suggestions with us, as we do with them.

How do you set the fee for the club?

We try to keep the costs reasonable. $200 - $300 per session/club.

A finance person needs to set the minimum number of students to break even, taking into consideration the cost of the vendor/teacher and any materials.

If an insufficient number of students sign up, we may have to make a decision on whether to cancel the club or lose money. In some cases, we decide to lose money on a couple clubs, to keep those families involved and eager to participate again next session.

If parents need financial assistance, they can reach out to PTO. The PTO will pay up to 90% per student student/club. We have them pay the full amount, then refund the 90%. We give on average 4-5 scholarships per session.

What are the most popular clubs?

We try to provide a balance of arts, physical, and mental activities. It can be surprising which ones are really popular.

The past couple of years, sewing has sold out first, then the "paint your own pottery". But fencing was highly sought after, and STEM related activities are also typically sold out. I really thought that more of the active stuff would go first, but they don't. Maybe kids are already involved in sports and physical activities outside of school.

In the mini-sessions, between the main 3 sessions, we offer a Play Club, where we offer free play, no screens, and little intervention from the monitors/aids. Only if there is some form of safety issue do they step in. Kids will self-organize into whatever play they are interested in.

Do all of the clubs meet weekly?

Yes, one day a week from 3:30 – 4:30. Each session is 7- 10 weeks. We schedule the last week of the session as make up, but if weather or something else causes clubs to be missed, we don't provide refunds.

School dismisses at 3pm. Participating students get dismissed to the cafeteria. The club manager picks their students up from the cafeteria. We will be starting to pay an admin to stay until 4:30pm so they can be a point of contact for the parents.

How do parents pay for the clubs?

We run all of the transactions through our PTO platform, ClassroomParent. This has worked really well, though it can be a bit of a challenge to have them all become available at the same time (ClassroomParent has agreed to work on an enhancement to make this easier).

One of the benefits of using ClassromParent is that it makes it simple for parents to select the student for whom they are purchasing the club, And we get detailed reports of all of the purchases, with the grades and homerooms of the selected students.

Each Club/Experience is added as a product, with the "amount available" set to the number of students allowed.

On a specified day, at a specified time, we enable all of the club related products so they appear in the store, and each parent has a fair shake at purchasing the club they want. The most popular ones can sell out in a few minutes.

How do you work with the school for space and other club needs?

We work with school admin to identify space for each club. Space has not been an issue. Some clubs need specific space, like a gym, or a sink in the room. Since clubs only meet one day a week, many of the spaces are shared by different clubs.

But there can be conflicts, like a school run initiative, where students may miss some of the sessions.

Do they all meet on school grounds?

Yes, all of our clubs meet at the school. Some schools in the district have a bus that can transport kids to offsite vendors, but we don't.

What are some of the challenges in managing the clubs?

Ensuring that clubs have enough enrollment to run and that everything is run safely is a big one. Once sign up ends, we sometimes have to figure out a way to allow some students to be added to a sold out club because the parent forgot or wasn't available at the time the clubs showed up in the store.

Coordinating with the school dismissal app has also been a challenge at times. Making sure that it is updated with the students that are staying for the clubs each day.

If a student requires an aid or nurse from the school, then we need to coordinate that with the school. We give the roster to the school admins and they figure it out.

The vendors all must carry insurance. We obtain a copy of the insurance before we agree to having them participate. All vendor personnel must get approved through the district. If the vendor needs to sub a club manager, that person must have already been approved by the district.

Sample Spring 2025 Club Offerings