Wanting its Community Services Department to put greater focus on providing programming for residents of all ages, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council is considering putting it under the direction of the town instead of the schools.

At a council workshop last week the proposal received “strong support” from councilors, according to Molly MacAuslan, the council chairwoman.

Following the Jan. 7 meeting, MacAuslan told the Current that the idea for moving Community Services from the School Department to the town was a “terrific recommendation” from the senior advisory committee.

She thinks the change could allow Community Services to provide more efficient services and said since it’s “a well-used resource by a number of different constituencies” in Cape it just makes sense for it to be a town department.

Town Manager Mike McGovern said since its founding in 1977, Community Services has “always been sort of a hybrid between the school department and the town,” with an equal number of advisory board members being appointed by the Town Council and the School Board.

Community Services has an operating budget of $1.8 million per year, with $533,790 of that coming from taxpayers in the current fiscal year and the remainder of which is covered through program fees.

The department has approximately eight full-time employees across its programs and facilities and a number of part-time staff, including lifeguards and program instructors.

McGovern said that when Community Services took on the responsibility of providing extended day care and the program director also oversaw transportation and custodial services at the schools, it made sense for the department to be managed by the school district.

However, he said, in more recent years, both custodial services and transportation duties have been moved to the town’s facilities department. And, with “a desire to see Community Services provide greater focus on all age cohorts (and) as the superintendent of schools already has so many issues to focus on and (since) Community Services has a role well beyond the schools, this seems to be a good time to convert (it) to a municipal department,” McGovern said this week.

In addition to its daycare and youth programming, Community Services also oversees the town pool – the Donald Richards Community Pool – a fitness center and provides activities for residents of all ages, with a special focus on senior programming.

With the council looking favorably on the proposal to make Community Services a town department, McGovern said councilors are set to discuss the idea with the School Board at a joint workshop scheduled for Feb. 1.

In a memo to the Town Council, McGovern said when Community Services was created nearly 40 years ago, the “plan was to move from an ad hoc, hodge-podge of recreation programs run by a part-time seasonal employee to a formalized program that would provide enrichment programs for citizens of all ages.”

At the time, he said, there was also strong interest in developing far greater use of school buildings as they saw little after-hours use and during the summer. McGovern said that Community Services “was successful from the outset” with the director reporting to both the superintendent of schools and town manager.

At that time there was no unified budget and the program “operated from a succession of small offices in the high school and in the middle school.” The pool had separate administration from the Community Services program and there was no Community Center, either, McGovern said in his memo.

In the 1980s he said Community Services responded to a need for pre-school care. And McGovern said that during the past 20 years or so a “major focus of Community Services has (also) been the summer youth programs.”

In addition the department also began offering programs that supported the school sports teams, and this “concentration on youth sporting activities has been a mainstay of Community Services,” the memo said.

In the past 20 years, Community Services has also focused on providing various fitness programs for all residents, including yoga and Pilates, which is now offered through a fitness center at the high school, McGovern said.

He added that Community Services also “strives to provide services to all citizens including the senior population (with) most of the current programs offered having many users who are in the 55-plus age cohort.”

And, while there are some specialized programs for seniors, McGovern said there is no one staff member devoted full time to focusing senior programming.

In his memo, McGovern acknowledged that while youth programs have been the major focus for Community Service, “the demographics of the community have also changed as the 55-plus segment of our population is fast growing and the baby boom generation moves into retirement.”

This has prompted, he said, “some older citizens, including the recent Senior Citizens Advisory Committee (to) call for Community Services to do more for our aging population.”

The memo went on to note that, “as the programs and activities of Community Services have evolved, it has become more crucial than ever to provide additional focus on what (it) can offer all citizens of Cape Elizabeth.”

Meredith Nadeau, the superintendent of schools, did not attend the Jan. 7 workshop, but McGovern told the council that she “concurs that it is time to move Community Services to become a separate municipal department reporting to the town manager.”