The Hub Program Uses School Resources To Enhance Education Of At-Risk Kids

Spokane students are starting to find out that after school, school is the place to be.

Twice a week at about 3:45 p.m., Bemiss sixth-grader Andrena Alberts rushes into the music room at Regal Elementary for a class on rhythm.

She and about 20 others bang on bongos, rattle maracas and use claps and taps to count out eighth and quarter notes. They all clamor for a chance to play the guiro - a large, ribbed gourd.

“I like how we can actually play the instruments here,” Alberts said. “At our school the instruments are mostly for show.”

“We get to do more here,” added Regal fifth-grader Mickey Maggard. “We get to do things we like to do.”

Parents are excited about the class, too, often stopping by to take a turn on the conga drum.

“It’s great,” said Julia Leininger, mother of one of the rhythm class students. “It’s infected us at home. We got our own guiro and we all practice together.”

The rhythm class is just one of a growing number of workshops popping up around town and around the nation as part of The Hub: Center for Activity. Spokane School District 81 received a three-year, $2.1 million federal 21st Century Community Learning Center grant last year to pay for the programs.

The idea behind The Hub is to get the most out of

“Schools have the space, they have computer labs, classrooms, kitchens, photo copiers,” explained Sam Magnuson, Hub coordinator at Garry Middle School. “And when the bell rings at 3 p.m. the building is sitting, waiting for stuff to happen.”

The 21st Century Learning Center grant provided for four Hubs - at Garry, Shaw, Glover and Sacajawea/Chase middle schools - around which 10 feeder elementary schools are grouped. Schools with the highest number of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch were chosen to pilot the program.

District 81’s Hubs focus on fifth-through eighth-graders. The programs are designed to fill the out-of-school hours and to make the transition to middle school easier.

“They’re at an age where they’re no longer in day care and they’re not yet in high school where they might have more programs to be involved in,” explained Hub project director Greg Baker. “They’re a population at risk. We want to give them a safe place to go for more enrichment or education.”

If kids take part in fun Hub programs as fifth- and sixth-graders, officials say, they will probably be more comfortable starting at a new school as seventh-graders.

Some Hub programs, like senior technology nights and woodshop classes, will be targeted to adults. Others will connect people to important services. The Children’s Health and Oral Maintenance Program, for example, will offer dental exams to kids who have no dentist or private insurance.

The programs now in place are the result of a collaboration among District 81, Health Improvement Partnership, Spokane Regional Health District and Washington State University. Officials from each agency meet weekly to decide on new programs, evaluate those in progress and make sure each is in compliance with the grant specifications.

About 20 other agencies are helping with specific programs and an additional 15 or so have expressed interest in getting involved with a Hub, Baker said.

HIP officials also are working on answering the sustainability question: If this is something the community values, how can we continue it when the money runs out?

With the way the programs are being received, that will be an important question to answer.

At Garry Middle School, students are continuing their investigation of the alleged poisoning of “Dooley the millionaire dog,” using forensics to solve the fictional crime. WSU Spokane City Lab Science Camp provides the teachers and equipment. Recently, students prepared dye stains for electrophoresis. They’ve also dusted for fingerprints, performed a toxicology lab on the dog and learned about chromatography.

Students agree it is a good way to learn.

“You don’t have to go over things bit by bit and then worry about being tested on it,” said Garry eighth-grader Brandon Mitchell. “And they trust us to use all the cool equipment.”

“It’s a lot easier to learn,” added seventh-grader Samantha Brown, as she used a micropipette to add stain solvent to samples from the “crime scene.”

Meanwhile, in another part of the school, about 20 kids joined local professional actor Patrick Treadway for a session on improvisational skill building.

“You are the `Magic Oracle.’ You are all one person,” he told a group of five eager teens.

The Oracle then had to spontaneously respond to classmates’ questions, each speaking one word at a time.

“Trust yourselves,” Treadway told them, “and words will come springing out.”

It’s a valuable skill - one that can’t be learned in science or math.

“It helps them think on their feet,” Treadway said of the improv class. “It helps with everyday conversation, preparing for job interviews and helps with confidence. It’s the best set of cross-over skills you can have.”

Students said they like the class because it’s so unlike others in their typical school day.

“We get to do things in here we don’t get to do in class,” said eighth-grader Dustin Dunn, an aspiring actor. “We can act out.”

Officials say the Hub classes focus on “at-risk” students, but Treadway said he “doesn’t buy it.”

“`At-risk’ and `kids’ is kind of redundant,” he said, laughing. “I’d like to see programs like this for all kids, all the time, throughout the school district. It’s a genuine outlet to experience things they otherwise wouldn’t. It’s a doorway to a positive set of alternatives, and a group to feel safe with - that’s something we all need.”

Widespread acceptance is exactly what officials are hoping will happen.

“This is a great opportunity to show the impact programs like this can have,” Magnuson said. “It’s new. No one has really seen what they can do. But we hope to be able to offer them at all schools.”

In addition to the homework centers, math clubs, Spokane Art School classes, jazz concerts, sports academies and Friday night trips to the YWCA already being held, officials have other programs in the works. After spring break, for example, they plan to start a beginning band, where parents can learn and play along with their children.

They want students and parents to see The Hub as one big step toward putting more cool in school.

“We can create programs and make school the spot to be,” Magnuson said. “We can bring in families and make it this glowing piece right in the middle of the community.”

Changed in the South Side Voice.