Inside our schools: South Pines SPACE has openings

A parent-involved education program in Central Valley with more than an 18-year track record has openings for students at its base school, South Pines Elementary.

The Student-Parent Alternative Classroom Experience, known as SPACE, is open to all children in first through fifth grades in the Central Valley School District.

Central Valley School District students are given first priority for SPACE classroom openings. However, out-of-district students may participate if openings are available.

Those parents who live outside of the busing boundaries of South Pines elect to “choice” their children into the program and must agree to provide transportation.

Sonja Owen, SPACE program parent and executive committee co-chair, said SPACE succeeds because parents’ participation supplements standard curriculum through volunteerism as well as an emphasis on field trips and programs to enhance learning.

“We have a SPACE meeting once a month, and we find out what teachers need, what the curriculum focus is, so we can work collaboratively,” Owen said. “It’s a parent-involvement program and each family agrees by a commitment form to 75 hours of volunteering to the program in various ways.”

However, flexibility is built into the volunteer commitments. Parents can help with classroom volunteering, serving on a committee, assisting a small group of students with reading or math, working on paperwork at home or chaperoning a field trip.

“We do a lot of prep work for the teachers,” Owen added. “Things they don’t always have time to do, like laminating papers for projects. We have a curriculum committee for each grade level, so parents come in and help with projects that support that curriculum. We have a field trip committee to supplement curriculum. SPACE provides opportunities for children to take three or four field trips a year.”

South Pines Principal Walt Clemons, who oversees the program, said SPACE currently has openings in all but the first-grade level. South Pines has three classrooms at each grade level, and one out of each three is a SPACE class.

“We don’t have a SPACE kindergarten program per se, but we have kindergartners here now who will be in SPACE next year,” Clemons said.

He added that SPACE provides a family atmosphere, with people who are involved getting to know and becoming supportive of one another.

“We had one parent being deployed to Iraq, and other parents said don’t worry about your hours next year. We had a parent who died, and families stepped up and helped support the family.

“To me, that is what SPACE is at its core, that sense of community. People will step out and help a family if they’re having difficulty.”

Clemons said parents can have confidence in the fact that when they commit a portion of their time toward SPACE, other parents fill in other places and at other times.

“You know other people are committing time to be there at times you can’t be. The parent participation piece is pretty big in SPACE. With the extra budget, there can be extra field trips, special speakers, and they’re looking for ways to enhance the curriculum. I think it connects the kids more. There may be a rain forest theme and we have the parents who get together on their own to plan a trip to a rain forest.”

SPACE operates on a budget of about $11,000. Parents participate in SCRIPT, a fundraising program for purchasing from businesses, in addition to other fundraising done through the year. Parents can opt to donate $150 to the program if they don’t want to do fundraising. The budget goes toward such items as field trips and a year-end culminating event.

Last year, a trip was organized for fifth-graders to follow a portion of the Lewis-Clark Trail and do a raft trip.

Owen also appreciates the program’s family atmosphere. “We get to know all the families through volunteering, being in the classroom, and through social activities.”

SPACE organizers are seeking to fill all openings in grade levels this school year and beyond. The program will allow for a waiting list if grade levels fill.

For more information about the program, contact SPACE new parent orientation coordinator Gayle Dexter at 926-0128, the South Pines Elementary School office at 228-4400, or visit the Web site: www.cvsdspace.org.