WATERLOO - Waterloo Community Schools is ending its 8-year-old Echoes after-school program to put a more intensive focus on academics.

An e-mail sent out by the district's community education department earlier this week said the limited at-risk dollars that have funded Echoes in its four middle schools are being re-allocated "to this new structure of academic support." Intensive academic support services will be offered twice-weekly for an hour after school to elementary and middle school students beginning this fall.

Michelle Temeyer, the district's director of community education, said the program will emphasize math and reading skills.

"The change, I think, really reflects the district's overall commitment to student achievement," she said. "Really, our first and foremost priority is to ensure the academic success of every student."

Temeyer said the district remains interested in partnerships with agencies that provided Echoes programming.

"Obviously, we've had a lot of investment in this program and we know that it has well-served our students. It certainly doesn't mean that we don't recognize the importance of youth development," she said. "Certainly the front door is open."

Echoes, which stands for Every Child Has the Opportunity to Excel and Succeed, started at Logan Middle School in 2000-01 as an enrichment program funded by a federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant. It was extended to Waterloo's other middle schools and Cedar Falls' junior highs when the districts won more grant funds. After the grant ended, Waterloo's district raised funds locally to keep the program going for a year.

For the last three years, it has been paid for with at-risk allowable growth money, a mix of property taxes and other district dollars, as well as some instructional support levy funds. Temeyer said the intensive academic support program will use $330,000 in at-risk allowable growth funds that had been allocated to Echoes.

Instruction in the program will be provided by teachers. Teachers and other school staff served as coordinators in the Echoes program. The position held by Shelly Smith, who served as Echoes' district-wide coordinator, was eliminated.

Temeyer said the program will allow students struggling in class to receive additional support throughout the day. Students still not able to master concepts will be enrolled in the after-school program.

"There will be a way in which kids are identified who are not accomplishing those objectives and surrounding them with the support they need," she said. "We need to make sure that we're providing every child what they need to be successful."

Temeyer acknowledged that teachers will not be able to compel students to attend the sessions.

"We hope that we can partner with parents on this and make sure they identify this as important, too," she said, "Taking a new direction will put us on a path where we can serve kids the way we know they need to be served."