Students enrolled in the after-school program at Woodland Park
Middle School will have a much shorter walk to the program
classroom. It’s now directly behind the middle school
building.
This is the program’s fourth year and until now students had to
walk to two churches on Rampart Range Road – High View Baptist
Church and Mountain View United Methodist Church. Once they arrived
at one church they stayed an hour and a half then walked to the
other church for the rest of the allotted time – a total of three
hours and 15 minutes.
Now, with construction of new classrooms, the middle school had
three unused portable classrooms.
“We’re excited to be right here on site,” said Shelley Lockwood,
program coordinator for program services at Community Partnership
and Family Resource Center, which sponsors the after-school
program. “The school district has been so generous in its offer to
let us use one of the portables.”
Of the three portables available, the after-school program will
be using the only one with restrooms.
Besides the convenience to the students, the portable offers
another boon, Lockwood said.
“The churches were great to let us use their space,” she said.
“But it was their space and not ours. This year the kids can make
the space their own.”
With school starting next week, the on-site program
co-coordinators Pam Parent and Ann Lennon will be hanging posters
and getting the almost blank-slate classroom ready for
students.
“Pam and Ann are creating a new curriculum that, I’m sure, will
allow the kids to help decorate the room,” Lockwood said. “I know
they’re planning a collage.”
The 40 developmental assets will be a large part of the
classroom curriculum as well, Lockwood added.
The school district bought five new laptop computers for the
program and there also will be several older computers available.
However, none of the computers will have Internet access.
Because of the size of the portable, Lockwood said there will
probably be a space for quiet study and reading and another area
for more active work and play. A healthy snack will be provided
every day and the students will be able to use the middle school
playing field with supervision.
The size of the classroom also limits class size to 34 students.
Tuition is $200 per semester and drop-ins are $10 a day.
“Because we’re a nonprofit and receive grant money to help us
run the program, we don’t have to charge enough to cover all our
expenses,” Lockwood said. “That keeps the tuition down – it’s less
than $3 a day.”
Many of the students have working parents who don’t leave work
until well after school lets out, Lockwood said.
“Some of our parents are interested in having their kids take
advantage of the tutoring we offer,” she said.
WPMS teacher Chuck Lawrence will be on hand three hours a day,
three days a week to help students in core curriculum learning. “We
may get new students this year because of the safety of having the
program on site.”
The program starts on Sept. 6 at 2:45 p.m. when regular classes
let out and continues to 6 p.m., using the same schedule as the
district.
“When the schools take the day off, so do we,” Lockwood said.
“We won’t have the program on snow days either, but snow delays
won’t affect us.”