Kids Hit the Books After Class

A number of after school programs have been popping up in the North Country as a means to keep students off the streets and active in other extra curricular activities.

Storyand photos by Allen Kirmss

It very well might be the most pleasing sound to teenage ears. The blare and commotion that would cause most listeners to cringe never gets old for middle and high school students who are trapped inside their classrooms, turning and itching in their seats, waiting to get out. If anything, for them the final bell could not come any sooner. All day, the pressures of tests and homework have led to one event: dismissal time.

For some students, release from a long day at school means going home, watching some cartoons and starting that night’s homework. However, for others it’s the start to something completely different. It could be the start to an adolescent's life of crime. It could be the start of a different education: an education on the streets. It could be the start of substance abuse. For these students, young and old, a lack of adult supervision either at home or at school after the final bell rings is a recipe for disaster.

However, efforts are currently under way to help these kids get off the streets. Schools in the North Country can proudly boast their display of after school programs to help kids stay off the streets and live a more stable life aimed at receiving formal education and good mental health.

For example, the Beekmantown Middle School offers a special after school program for their students. For forty minutes a day, students sixth through eighth grade can attend the, "10th period".

"It’s a quiet place for them to go [after school] and just work on their homework for about forty minutes," Christine Tedford Said, a middle school counselor at Beekmantown Middle School said. The program consists of a teacher monitoring and assisting students while they do their homework Tedford added.

"I think it’s very important that [students] get involved in after school activities, especially if they can get involved with something at the school because that just connects them more to their education," Tedford said.

An average of 10 students usually attend 10th period, and the majority of the students who attend do not have supervision at home. Tedford believes that after school programs are important for students because now is the primetime they need to get involved in social activities and learn study skills for high school. Once they reach ninth grade, if they haven’t been taught properly the fundamentals of good habits and staying off the streets, a trickle down effect of falling grades and bad habits starts to emerge.

"I think it’s very important that [students] get involved in after school activities, especially if they can get involved with something at the school because that just connects them more to their education."

This year alone, Tedford has been predominantly dealing with students with falling grades that is most likely due to a lack of supervision at home. For students whose grades are falling, she reccomends mandatory study labs to their parents on certain days of the week.

"I just think kids need to become invested in their education in middle school," she said.

Recently, five school districts including the AuSable Valley, Moriah, Northern Adirondack, Saranac, and Ticonderoga school districts were awarded, along with 18 participating partners, a $4.3 million federal grant for school programs. This new collaboration is one of the largest in the North Country and aims at bringing together local education, law enforcement and probation, early childhood, and mental health partners to establish and maintain a system change that will positively impact students, families, and communities according to Wanda McQueen, Project Administrator for Safe Schools/Healthy Students.

The system will focus on five core elements: school violence, drug prevention, social and emotional support, mental health services, and early childhood learning, McQueen added.
The Champlain Valley Educational Services received the grant to start a federal initiative over the next four years to make schools safer and students healthier.  The grant is, "one of the largest received in the area," McQueen said.

One of the two major programs will be the Family’s and Schools Together program (FAST), for elementary school students. The FAST program is an after school program that aims at families and students who have individual needs and can comply and meet these specific needs. FAST is a prevention program for issues at home so that a child does not develop violently or begin to use drugs.

"It really builds family bonding and builds relationships between the school and home and helps parent children build more effective relationships that help to minimize the risk of violence or alcohol and tobacco use and promote good mental health," McQueen said.

For now, students are still finding themselves on the wrong road toward a criminal life. With the help of after school initiatives and administrators who care about student’s futures, the threat of something so dismal will hopefully be one day put in the past.

What does your child do after school?