Photo by Tim Jarkow for The Lafayette

Paxinosa Elementary School is one of two schools that works with Lafayette College students in its America Reads program.

The Easton Area School District announced a pause on the majority of its after-school programs on Wednesday, citing funding concerns from the state budget impasse. The pause will go into effect next week.

“Buffer for the worst, hope for the best,” said district superintendent Tracy Piazza of the “proactive decision” to halt the programs.

Under the decision, most of the district’s elementary school after-school programs will be put on hold, as well as a large proportion of middle school and high school programs. Some activities, like those where outside funding is involved or where staff contracts have already allocated funds, will continue to operate.

The district elected to cut the after-school programming because the dollars that finance it, primarily used to cover staffing and bussing expenses, come from state and federal funds tangled up in Harrisburg partisan gridlock, the result of months-long disagreements between the Republican-led Senate and Democratic-led House.

“None of these decisions are ever made lightly,” Piazza said. “We’re trying to impact the students the least that we can — and I know it doesn’t feel like that with after-school programming — but after-school programming was picked specifically because the dollars that pay for it all are the dollars that are in impasse.”

One program that is remaining active, despite some funding adjustments, is America Reads, a federally funded initiative aiming to increase youth math and English proficiency. Lafayette College partners with two of the district’s elementary schools to supply tutors.

“We help with kids who need the help,” said Marc Dawson ‘27, one of the program’s student coordinators. “This ensures that they have that support system, and also their parents have some place to leave the kids while they finish working, because a lot of them work in several jobs and long hours.”

“I wish Congress would figure this stuff out, but besides that, we all have high hopes,” Dawson continued.

The district is also curtailing spending on supplies that are “wants more than needs,” according to Piazza.

“We’re making this decision now just to be proactive,” Piazza said. “We hope that it passes in a week or two, and then we can get back to it.”

News Editor Clara Witmer ‘27 is a tutor for the America Reads program. She did not contribute writing or reporting.