REDMOND — When school starts Tuesday, it will be without the staple Redmond-area parents have come to rely on for 17 years: the Boys & Girls Clubs. While the summer programs ran in the Redmond and Terrebonne clubs as usual, recent upheavals in the organization have prompted the clubs to temporarily shut their doors.

And they estimate they need $175,000 to reopen.

“We haven’t written them off,” said Mike McIntosh, superintendent of Redmond School District, which has been working toward forming a tighter partnership with the clubs. “But the community will have to step up or a lot will have to change.”

Local schools are directly affected because many families use the clubs as a safe place for their children before and after school. The school district has received a grant to maintain its after-school programming in three of its nine elementary and middle schools but none of the district schools has before-school care for grades one through six.

“We’re competing for the same kids, so it only made sense to partner up,” McIntosh said, adding that discussions are still in the works for the clubs and the schools to work together.

It’s been a long and sometimes rocky road for the organization, which was conceived in a local grass-roots effort nearly 20 years ago.

When the Redmond club was deeded a new, larger building free of a mortgage in 2011, it seemed like the bad days were behind it. But after a decision was made earlier this summer to dissolve its parent organization, Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Oregon, both the Terrebonne and Redmond clubs were left on their own and had only enough money in the bank to operate for two months.

“I don’t want to turn around in 60 days and close the doors,” said Paul Rodby, former Redmond club board member. “Our burn rate is about $30,000 a month and we only have $75,000.” User fees would not be enough to make up the difference, he said.

The Terrebonne club is in a modular classroom next door to the K-8 Terrebonne School, as it has been since it was opened in 2000. Redmond’s club was first opened in 1997 in a remodeled bus barn next to Evergreen School, a space leased from the Redmond School District. Within a few years there was talk of needing more room, but there was no money to go anywhere. Instead, the club used Evergreen playing fields and its gymnasium for its before- and after-school programs. But when Evergreen closed in 2010, a new plan had to be found.

Meanwhile, when the recession hit in 2008, both clubs had to shut down temporarily for restructuring due to declining funds, a fate suffered by all the clubs in Central Oregon.

After reopening, the Redmond club received word that the nonprofit Cascade Child Care Center was willing to donate its building across the street from Obsidian Middle School. More than $250,000 in donations were raised to remodel the space to fit club needs and the relocated club opened in 2012.

The reorganization has prompted the formation of a board of directors and the development of a business plan, and Rodby said he’s been busy recruiting volunteers for both efforts. The intent is to operate as Boys & Girls Clubs of Redmond and Terrebonne. Sixteen club employees have been laid off, a normal practice between the closing of the summer program and opening of school in fall, he said, but instead of a week or so it will be longer.

“We’re trying to get our feet on the ground,” Rodby said. “We determined we need about $175,000 to open the doors because we have no grants in the pipeline. We need enough money to sustain us for at least six months until those come through.”

The clubs are setting a goal of Oct. 1 to reopen but aren’t sure if that’s possible.

“If we don’t get the $175,000 by the first of October I think we’re pulling the plug on this thing. We’ve got to have a sustainable plan. I’d love it if you could give me Phil Knight’s phone number,” he quipped, referred to the Nike billionaire who maintains a home in Terrebonne.

— Reporter: 541-548-2186, lpugmire@bendbulletin.com