ASAP is adding six more partner schools to the program starting in Fall 2013, vastly expanding the program’s reach in the Des Moines metro. The growth is funded in part by two separate Department of Education 21st Century Learning Centers grants through Des Moines Public Schools. ASAP enrolls twenty students per session from each grant school; in the current school year, ASAP will provide arts enrichment for 700 students, grades 3 through 8.

New elementary schools this year include Garton, Hillis, Morris, River Woods, Samuelson, and Willard. Continuing partner schools include Brody Middle School and five  elementaries: Capitol View, King, McKinley, Monroe, and Moulton.

To accommodate so many new students, ASAP is piloting a hybrid program model in 2013–14, with six schools attending the regular program on-site at St. John’s Lutheran Church downtown, and six-schools receiving “push-in” services in their own buildings. Each 7-week session the roster of schools will rotate so that all students have the opportunity to come downtown for at least one full session.

ASAP is also adding staff to manage the new hybrid model: Executive Director Michelle Bolton King will oversee the pilot push-in program while continuing to direct all operations of the organization; new ASAP staff member Caeli Esser will serve as Program Coordinator for the on-site program at St. John’s.