Jacksonville’s Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida is one of the largest recipients of funding administered by the Kids Hope Alliance. That investment supports afterschool and summer programs for children across Duval County. It also raises a question taxpayers should be able to answer: how many children attend, what services do they receive, and what results does the city get for its money?

The question has taken on added significance because City Council member Kevin Carrico works for the Boys & Girls Clubs. Council records show that he has abstained on KHA funding votes. They also show that he supported a separate proposal to shift some KHA board appointment power from the mayor to the City Council president.

What Is the Kids Hope Alliance, and Who Created It?

Former Mayor Lenny Curry established the Kids Hope Alliance in 2017 by combining the Jacksonville Children’s Commission and the Jacksonville Journey’s youth programs. KHA became the city’s central agency for funding services that include afterschool care, early learning and support for young people. Its seven voting board members are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by City Council.

KHA generally funds organizations that deliver services rather than running every program itself. That makes its contracts and reporting central to public oversight. A budget tells residents what the city plans to spend; attendance, costs and outcomes help show what that spending accomplishes.

How Much KHA Funding Goes to the Boys & Girls Clubs?

An Action News Jax review reported that KHA allocated $12.36 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs for fiscal year 2025–26 across its programs. That figure covers more than the afterschool renewals examined below. It is an allocation reported for that fiscal year, not a finding that the organization spent the full amount or that every dollar paid for school-site programming.

A KHA board packet provides a more detailed view of proposed 2026–27 afterschool contract renewals. Its main Boys & Girls Clubs subtotal is $9,515,786; four sites listed separately under “Additional Funding” total $1,969,109. Together, those entries amount to approximately $11.48 million, or 42% of the packet’s approximately $27.27 million afterschool renewal total. These are figures in a renewal worksheet, not a claim about final spending or every source of afterschool funding in Duval County.

How Does Jacksonville Set Afterschool Funding by Site?

The KHA worksheet uses a planned school-year rate of $14.41 per student per day for many providers and a planned summer rate of $25 per student per day for many programs. School-year amounts commonly use 170 days, while many summer entries use 28 days. Those rates are a useful starting point for comparing proposed contracts because the worksheet applies them across multiple organizations.

A site’s total can still differ substantially according to planned enrollment, summer programming, security and additional funding. For example, the worksheet lists $97,988 for Biltmore Elementary, with 40 planned school-year students and no summer allocation, and $518,002 for Biscayne Elementary, with 160 planned school-year students, 140 summer students and a separate security entry. Reading either total as the price of the same service would give residents a misleading comparison.

Why Do Four Boys & Girls Clubs Sites Receive Additional Funding?

The worksheet places Arlington Elementary, Arlington Heights Elementary, Highlands Elementary and NW Legends in an “Additional Funding” section. Each receives roughly $201,795 above its base calculated amount, bringing the four proposed contract totals to approximately $1.97 million. The worksheet also shows additional funding for four Communities in Schools sites, at $212,400 per site.

The additional amounts do not, on their own, show that either provider is overpaid. They do create a specific question KHA can answer publicly: what staffing, services, site conditions or other requirements account for each supplement? A clear explanation alongside the contract and performance measures would let families and taxpayers judge the larger amounts on their merits.

Is the Cost of Afterschool Programming Reasonable?

The worksheet allows comparisons among KHA’s proposed site allocations, but it cannot establish the cost of delivering a quality program by itself. A Wallace Foundation study found that program costs vary with staffing, hours, activities, location and the age of children served. The study examined programs in six cities and was published in 2009, so its historical figures should not be treated as a current Jacksonville price ceiling.

The stronger local test is to compare what each contract requires with what each site delivers. That means publishing planned capacity, actual attendance, days of service, staffing, the source of any additional funding and agreed performance measures together. A per-site amount can look high or low until those details are put beside it.

Do 6,000 Students Represent Jacksonville’s Full Afterschool Need?

Duval County Public Schools says its KHA-funded out-of-school-time programs serve approximately 6,000 students daily. On a separate page, the district says its broader before- and afterschool programs serve nearly 15,000 students daily at more than 150 school sites. The 6,000 figure therefore should not be described as all district afterschool participation; the pages describe different program groups.

Neither figure establishes what percentage of Duval County children need afterschool care. Calculating that share would require a local estimate of eligible families seeking care, including children who could not obtain a place. A 2025 statewide Afterschool Alliance study found substantial unmet demand across Florida, but its statewide estimate cannot be applied directly to Jacksonville.

What Is Kevin Carrico’s Connection to the Boys & Girls Clubs?

Carrico is a vice president at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida, according to Action News Jax. The outlet reported that he said he follows ethics rules, discloses his employment and abstains from related votes. The nonprofit’s CEO, Paul Martinez, told the outlet that its grant funding is used under applicable rules and that its employment and grant processes maintain a separation from Carrico’s public role.

Public funding of a council member’s employer calls for careful scrutiny, but the employment connection does not establish that a contract was improperly awarded. The useful questions are how awards were evaluated, who approved contract changes, what conflicts were disclosed and whether performance was measured consistently across providers. Those questions can be examined through published budgets, board packets, contracts, council votes and nonprofit filings.

How Did Carrico Vote on KHA Funding and Board Control?

Council records show Carrico abstained on final KHA annual budget votes in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. They also show an abstention on a separate May 2026 measure involving $5.2 million for youth programs. Those votes document a pattern of abstaining on the identified funding measures; the vote tallies alone do not establish his reason for each abstention.

Carrico did vote yes on a different KHA measure on June 9, 2026. The ordinance would have allowed the City Council president to appoint three of KHA’s seven voting board members, subject to council confirmation, while the mayor would have appointed the other four. It also proposed changes to library board appointments.

Mayor Donna Deegan vetoed the ordinance, and an attempted override failed on July 28, so the KHA appointment change did not take effect. The distinction belongs in any account of Carrico’s record: he abstained on the cited KHA funding votes while supporting a proposed shift in who selects some KHA board members. That is a documented difference between votes on appropriations and a vote on governance, not proof of his motive.

Why Did Carrico’s Attempt to Nominate His Boss to the JEA Board Draw Scrutiny?

Carrico also nominated Boys & Girls Clubs CEO Paul Martinez to the JEA board in February 2026. Martinez withdrew before the nomination reached a council committee vote. Jacksonville Today reported on Carrico’s communications about the proposed appointment and on subpoenas connected to the broader JEA controversy.

JEA and KHA are separate bodies, and the JEA nomination did not appoint Martinez to the KHA board. Its relevance here is Carrico’s overlapping roles as an elected official and employee of a major city-funded youth-services provider. The nomination and reported investigation warrant accurate coverage, without treating an investigation or a withdrawn nomination as a finding of wrongdoing.

What Should Jacksonville Publish to Show the Value of Its Afterschool Contracts?

Jacksonville has a site-level funding worksheet. The next step for public understanding is to connect each site’s approved contract amount to its actual attendance, staffing, services and reported outcomes in a format residents can compare. That would make the four additional Boys & Girls Clubs allocations—and similar supplements for other providers—easier to evaluate.

Afterschool care can give children a safe place to go and families vital support. The scale of Jacksonville’s investment deserves equally clear reporting on its reach and results. For the Boys & Girls Clubs and every other KHA-funded provider, the public should be able to follow the money from the approved contract to the children served.

Public Money Pipeline IX

Public Money Pipeline VIII:

Public Money Pipeline VII: Understanding the Kids Hope Alliance

The Public Money Pipeline Part VI

The Public Money Pipeline Part V

The Public Money Pipeline Part IV

The Public Money Pipeline Part III

The Public Money Pipeline Part II

The Public Money Pipeline Part I