Achievement Place for Girls, a group home for teenagers, will close soon.

“They told us it’s going to close July 1,” said Jayme Aschemeyer, a Kansas University student who’s worked about three months at the home, 637 Tenn.

“They’re going to tell the girls Wednesday,” she said.

Kansas Children’s Service League confirmed the closing.

“Our social workers were contacted last Friday and told that Achievement Place was closing and that they would need to find alternative placements,” said Tina Long, league spokeswoman.

The league, one of the state’s five foster care contractors, subcontracts with Achievement Place for Girls.

Aschemeyer said she and other workers were upset more wasn’t done to keep the home open.

“All of us there have done our jobs. The board hasn’t done its job,” she said. “By that I mean there hasn’t been any fund raising to speak of.”

Governing board president Barbara Starr declined comment.

“I’m not going to say anything until after Wednesday,” she said. “We’re having a board meeting Wednesday. I’ll answer your questions after that.”

Aschemeyer said that in recent weeks employees’ paychecks have been late or incomplete.

“It’s like I was supposed to get paid $291, and I got $200 on time,” she said. “A week later, I got $91.”

Achievement Place for Girls, 637 Tenn., is scheduled to close July 1.

Currently, Achievement Place has six girls, ages 14-18, living in the five-bedroom home. The girls are near the age of legal independence, after which they would no longer be wards of the state. Should the home close as expected, they would be moved to other foster homes.

“The sad thing is these are girls who’ve been moved around their whole lives,” said Aschemeyer, 22. “And now they’re going to be moved again.”

Some of the girls, Aschemeyer said, had hoped to begin classes at KU in the fall.

The league’s Long said social workers would confer with each girl before deciding where they would be placed. “Some, I’m sure, will go to family foster homes,” she said. “And some may go to other group homes. It’s hard to say without knowing more.”

Long said Achievement Place for Girls’ services were well-regarded. “We are sorry to see them go,” she said.

“This is unfortunate,” said Shelley Bock, a Lawrence attorney who has represented children in foster care. “Anytime you lose a community-based program that’s providing services in a homelike environment, it’s a loss.”

Home for girls in state’s care getting by on shoestring (06-25-04) Home for teen girls struggles for new start (04-22-02)

Initially part of a groundbreaking research project at KU’s Department of Human Development and Family Life, the home opened in 1972. The project lost its federal funding in 1996, starting a downward spiral that resulted in the home’s closing in 2001 after several members left the board and the house parents’ abrupt resignation. The home reopened in 2002.

Achievement Place for Girls is not to be confused with its counterpart, Achievement Place for Boys.

“We’re doing OK. It’s hand-to-mouth, but we’re stable,” said Bobick Sarraf, executive director at Achievement Place for Boys, 1320 Haskell Ave.

Sarraf said that after KU lost its federal funding, the two group homes went their separate ways.

Achievement Place for Boys, he said, retained the project’s initial concept involving a married couple living at the home and rearing the children as their own.

Achievement Place for Girls, he said, switched to hiring a director and shift workers.

“I’m sorry to hear they are closing,” Sarraf said.