|
REACH! ENTERS LAST YEAR OF FEDERAL FUNDING
The lights are on during the out-of-school hours in the Orleans
Southwest Supervisory Union. With the assistance of a three-year
grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the Union’s REACH!
Project has been providing a variety of programs in the elementary
schools of Wolcott, Craftsbury, Hardwick, Woodbury, and Lakeview
Union, and at the middle and high school centers at Craftsbury
Academy and Hazen Union High School.
For the past three years the grant has supported academic,
enrichment, and recreation activities for all school-age children and
youth during after-school hours, school breaks, and summer
vacations. It also provided a broad range of low-cost community
education courses, or Night Life, for adults and teens at the
Wolcott, Hazen Union, and Lakeview Union schools.
In the third year of the grant (2003-2004) REACH! served 433
students, or 36% of all the students in the supervisory union, and
almost adults.
Students enrolled in the elementary after-school programs have
healthy snacks, time to complete homework or to improve their reading
skills (Homework Café), and exciting activities such as
cooking, martial arts, natural science, and seasonal arts.
Middle and secondary students have a similar schedule with a
different mix of enrichment activities.
During the school holidays and the summer vacation, REACH! provides
opportunities for all students to attend full-day programs. The
longer sessions offer activities such as adventure and survival
skills, ceramics, woodworking, theater, rock climbing, circus, and
video animation.
The REACH! Project is in its last year of grant funding from the U.S.
Department of Education. The current grant is not renewable,
but any grant monies remaining after May 2004, may be used during the
following year.
Programs that are beginning to demonstrate positive academic results
are not sustainable, however, without new sources of funding or
community partners willing to provide some of the programs.
In addition to the grant, program fees provide another source of
income to run activities. They are based on a family’s
ability to pay and range from $1.30 to $2.60 per day for the
after-school programs. The cost to operate programs, however,
ranges from $3-$5 a day. Grant funding has been bridging the gap.
Site teams, composed of interested parents, community members, and
school staff, have been acting as an advisory board to the REACH!
Project. They are considering ways to continue programs by
partnering with existing community programs, reducing or eliminating
some activities, and seeking other grants. Parents and
guardians of children in the school district are encouraged to
complete and return their REACH! surveys so that their requests and
ideas can be part of these discussions.
If you are interested in joining these efforts, or helping to offer
programs, please contact, Eileen Boland, Project Director, at
472-3247 or via email at registerossu@vtlink.net
Good news for Grades
In addition to providing safe and engaging after-school experiences
that help the social, emotional, and physical growth of children and
youth, it appears that there are academic benefits as well.
Teacher surveys from the first grant year (2001-2002) reported that
30+% of the students who regularly attended REACH! programs
improved their homework skills, class participation, and sociability
with others. During the second grant year (2002-2003), teacher
surveys indicated a 42% improvement in these same indicators.
Teachers also commented on other positive benefits such as a student
who “matured into a more decisive, confident person&ldots;she
loved the after-school program” or the “Homework Café
was extremely beneficial to this student.”
Even more encouraging are the positive trends in math and English
grades for students who are “regular attendees”, that is,
students who attended REACH! programs for 30 or more days.
In the first year, 32% of these students increased their math grades
a half grade or more and 30% increased their English grades by the
same margin. In the second year, 57% of regular attendees had
increased math grades a half grade or more, and 56% had similar
increases in their English grades.
|
