Skyway’s School Plus program offers activities before, after class

For Annette Folk, school starts long before the first bell rings and lets out long after hallways empty at the end of the day.

Folk coordinates the School Plus program for Coeur d’Alene’s Skyway Elementary School. The program fills the before- and after-school gap for students with educational activities, board games and study time. She often mixes in some of her own favorite activities, like cooking, sewing and making crafts, and has become well-known in the district for her approach to the after-school program. “It brings a smile to my face just thinking of making the kids happy,” Folk said.

She awakens at 4 a.m. so she can be at the school by 6 to get ready for the morning session, which starts at 6:45. After the session wraps up at 9, she works at the school helping in the lunchroom or laminating for other teachers. When the last school bell of the day rings, she’s back with the School Plus kids until 6 p.m., when working parents pick them up.

She said she loves going to work each day.

Tara Little, of Coeur d’Alene, has two children in the program and said after two years with School Plus, her kids have become more well rounded. They’ve picked up sewing and art skills with “Nettie’s” help and complain if their mom comes to pick them up before the program is over, Little said.

“If I pick them up too early, they say, ‘Go back home,’ ” Little said. “That makes me feel good when I go pick them up.”

School Plus is available for second through fifth-graders, using space in cafeterias and gyms. The district also offers a program called Little House at Coeur d’Alene High School for children ages 2 to 5.

School Plus started in Coeur d’Alene School District 271 in 1990. Folk is one of program 10 coordinators at different schools in the district. Some 450 kids take part in the program each year with an average of one adult supervisor per dozen kids.

Folk has about 80 kids in her program this year and as many as four adult assistants to help out at Skyway.

On days without school, Folk plans camp-ins, where kids set up tents, cook s’mores and hang out.

“Some of the kids never get to do things like that,” she said. “It just makes the day go by fast. They enjoy it.”

Folk worked in school districts in Massachusetts before she and her husband, James, moved to Rathdrum to retire.

When she saw an advertisement seeking students for the program, she called to ask about an open teaching position. She’s been with the program for 12 years now and has been a site coordinator for nine years.

Folk said some students from her first School Plus class 12 years ago still come back, visit and keep in touch.

“Every day is a good day,” she said. “I never have any complaints. I just enjoy my job.”

The program is independent of public education funding, said Patty Breuchaud, the district’s School Plus director. Monthly fees pay for operating expenses, supplies and salaries.

“This is truly the parents’ program,” she said.

Fees for full-time students who attend both morning and afternoon sessions all week are $152 a month, plus an annual registration fee.

Coordinators, like Folk, give their time on days when school is out, during parent-teacher conferences, Christmas break, spring break and all summer. Parents can choose which sessions to enroll their children as long as they have at least two sessions a week in School Plus.

Breuchaud said the schedules and rates are varied to accommodate parents’ work schedules.

“To most people, school and safe go together,” Breuchaud said. “When they know their kids are in a safe place and cared for, they can go about in their role in supporting their family.”