Susan Ingalls, the Founder and Executive Director of Children & the Classics--a New York City agency that offers technical assistance, arts resources, and direct programming to more than two dozen Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) in New York City--describes her experience of sitting in on various meetings where the topic of conversation was of the public school system taking over after school programs and replacing programs lead by Community-Based Organizations. The CBO leaders run neighborhood centers that are separate from schools, and seek to preserve the character and culture that they have created within their own buildings. Susan Ingalls makes the point that children are in school buildings approximately seven hours each day, and that children should be allowed to go to programs tailored to their interests in spaces specifically geared to support those areas of interest. The article concludes with a request for insistence of going back to the basics when providing environments for children outside of school buildings.