GRAVETTE -- The after-school programs and summer programs at the Gravette Boys & Girls Club have been a success, officials say.
Ashley Oosterman, club director, runs programs for students in kindergarten through eighth grade with the help of three staff members. She said 349 youngsters were served from June 2016 to May 2017.
Oosterman cited figures from the After School Alliance, whose studies show 70 percent of students involved in such programs improve their homework completion and class participation and two-thirds improve behavior in class. She said the program provides nearly 2 million children across the country a safe place after school as well as all the benefits from the summer programs.
Mandy Barrett, principal of Gravette Upper Elementary School, says the programs are valuable. They fill a need no other area agency is meeting and are "absolutely essential," she says, because they impact so many families. Working parents appreciate the enrichment opportunities available to their children, she said.
Boys & Girls Club staff partner with the 21st Century Community Learning Center for summer programs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the school, where certified teachers and classified staff help with the program. The students are fed breakfast and lunch at no charge. At 1 p.m. they are walked to the club, where programs continue until 5 p.m. The club is open until 5:30 p.m. in the summer and until 6 p.m. during the school year. A bus runs to and from Bella Vista, transporting students for the program.
Students in the after-school program, which runs from 3:30 to 5 p.m., receive tutoring and homework help and a snack. Extracurricular activities are available then, including Girls On the Run, a fishing club, Good News Bible Club and Girl Scouts. Participation in the program averages 100 students per day.
Activities available during the summer include computer coding classes, robotics, science, technology, engineering and math activities, physical activities and knitting. Special activities are offered for the younger students, kindergarten through second grade, including art classes.
"We try to hit the students' interests," Barrett said. She said students and parents are asked what they want offered when the programs are being planned. Students go swimming one day a week at the city pool and have frequent field trips. A recent field trip took them to the Wild Wilderness Safari in Gentry, and another to the Amazeum in Bentonville.
Devin Courtney is site coordinator for the 21st Century Community Learning Center in Decatur and oversees a similar program. Activities for students from kindergarten through 12th grade are offered at Decatur Elementary School. A new Boys & Girls Club recently started in Gentry.
Summer Boys & Girls Club activities are paid for through a U.S. Department of Education's 21st Century Community Learning Center grant. Money is administered through Title II, the Every Student Succeeds Act and Title IV, Part B. All activities are free to parents.
Oosterman and Barrett say they are concerned budget cuts proposed by President Donald Trump could eliminate the CCLC programs. They say the programs in the field of education are too important to be cut.
NW News on 06/25/2017