PEAK program paying dividends

By Steve McClain

Staff Writer

There’s more than child care being provided at Marion County’s 21st Century Community Learning Center after-school program.

A lot more.

On any given day, students from Lebanon and Glasscock elementary schools and Lebanon Middle School can be found getting homework help and then participating in enrichment activities including cooking, art projects, technology skills and sports such as volleyball.

As a result, those students’ test scores have risen and their schools are closing in on their CATS goals for 2006. It’s that success that judges noted in awarding the Spring 2006 PEAK (Public Education Achieves in Kentucky) Award to the program. KSBA presents the award to focus statewide attention on outstanding public school efforts that enhance student learning and promote the positive impact of public elementary and secondary education.

"I cannot begin to tell you about the differences I have watched in my little girl," wrote parent Magadalene Burton in support of the program. Her daughter Timmera has gone from being a struggling student to making straight A’s since starting the program.

At-risk students from those three Marion County schools, which were the lowest-performing schools in the district, are referred to the program by teachers and principals.

"The focus is clearly on students learning and helping them overcome obstacles in their learning," said Superintendent Roger Marcum. "There are a lot of things you can do in an after-school program, but what they have discovered here is they can do things kids enjoy doing, but also learn."

Lynne Keen, project director, said that was the intention when the district sought the five-year federal 21st Century Community Learning Center grant.

"We wanted the students to get an additional dose of core content, things they would need additional time on," she said.

Site director Tracy Cochran said the first order of business when students arrive is homework.

"Teachers can e-mail us or call us to let us know of a particular problem a student has and we work with them on that," she said.

Then there are the enrichment activities, which are fun but relate to core content as well, such as cooking.

"They love to do that, but while they are cooking, they learn how to read a recipe, how to measure and use fractions," Cochran said.

The program is also a chance for school leaders to connect with parents.

"I think everybody struggles to get parents involved," said board member Bernard Miles. "When we have a meeting and the children at the center are participating, we have a lot of parents there to watch."

Since launching the program three years ago, test scores at all those schools have risen, especially in math where Glasscock students have improved their test results by 16 points. At the 2005 mid-cycle point, scores at all three schools were right at or above their 2006 CATS goals.

Marcum credited Keen, Cochran and assistant site director Scott Spaulding for making the program work.

"I think the key to any quality program is the people and we have good ones doing this program," Marcum said. "They are quality people who make all the difference in the world."

The program may be a hit with students, their families and school leaders, but without the City of Lebanon and Marion County Fiscal Court, which have provided the building, it would be a struggle.

"Both government entities have allowed us to occupy the facility and have invested money to not only make it functional, but attractive," Marcum said. "It is centrally located downtown to all three schools. We would have trouble finding the space to have this program if we didn’t have the building."

Cochran said Citizens National Bank collects aluminum cans for the program to recycle and use the money for supplies.

"We go pick up the cans when they call. We go once a month and get an average of $40, which is useful to go out and pick up supplies," Cochran said.

"This is an excellent model of a community-school district partnership where all stakeholders are working to ensure students receive and have access to a wide spectrum of services and enrichment activities in a small community," said PEAK judge Rhonda Caldwell with the Kentucky Association of School Administrators.

As with any grant, sustaining the program will be a challenge for Marcum and the school board. But he and school board members have already started discussing how to find resources to continue the program.

"They see tremendous value in it and I would expect us to find a way to fund it," he said. "It’s a program that our parents and community believe in. We try to have a board meeting at the center once a month, and they give pretty moving testimony about the difference the program has made."

Burton is among those parents. She said Timmera told her how much fun she is having and how the staff kept telling her how smart she is. Burton watched one afternoon as the staff told each child the same thing. When they asked Timmera a question and she knew the answer, she looked up at her mom and said, "See Mama. I knew it all the time!"

— The deadline to enter the Fall 2006 PEAK contest is Sept. 21.

Photo: Teacher Joni Farmer and a second-grader  work together to learn to thread a needle in quilting class. The students are making their own pillows in class at Marion County’s 21st Century Community Learning Center. Photo provided by Marion County Schools