Community action
Katelyn Finney was playing a lamb in a puppet show recently in the Community of Christ Church basement, reading the lines with aplomb. The fourth-grade student at Broadway Elementary reads at a fifth-grade level, but it wasn’t always that way.
“She advanced two reading levels in four weeks,” said Dale Sprecher, children and youth minister of the church at Broadway and Bowdish. “Now she thinks she’s the smartest kid in school.”
Finney loves her newfound confidence with the written word. “It feels really exciting,” she said. Her improved reading skills also make her school day easier.
Finney is one of several success stories after a team of church volunteers teamed with Broadway Elementary to offer after-school tutoring two days a week for six-week sessions. Students needing a little extra help in English and math are referred to the program by their teachers. “This is just an extension of their school day,” Sprecher said. “The teachers would give us a lot more if we had the staff for it.”
The small church attracts only about 100 people to services each Sunday, but has marshaled 35 volunteers to staff the project. Eighteen are needed each day – 16 to teach small groups in teams of two, and two to supervise the front door of the church and provide security.
Volunteer and church member Janice Townsend, a retired teacher, was a natural fit in the program and loves working with the kids. “They add a dimension to life,” she said. “This is something extra special for me.”
Like all the volunteers, Townsend has undergone two background checks. The school does one that checks for criminal history. The church does one that involves interviewing references about how well the volunteer works with kids, Sprecher said. Volunteers teach in teams of two so no adult is left alone with a group of children. Parents do not pay to participate in the program. The church relies on donations to purchase snacks and other materials.
The feedback has been good, said school counselor and church member Judy Polley. “The teachers are seeing improvements in the kids and telling us that,” she said. The program is the first of its kind in the Central Valley School District. “As far as we know, we’re the first to offer this.”
The first session, with 32 students, just wrapped up and the next will begin in April after spring break and WASL testing. “We’re seeing how it goes and adjusting and modifying and changing,” she said. Some of the children will graduate from the program while others might return if their teachers request it. Most of the children involved in the program are not where they should be in school but are not so far behind that they need drastic intervention, Polley said.
Sometimes just a little extra attention is what students like Finney need, she said. “Not all the kids have been that successful, but they’ve improved. They’re showing growth.”
As successful as the program is, it doesn’t look like what Sprecher envisioned. The plan was to simply have kids drop in and get help with their homework, Sprecher said. It evolved into a more formal program, with school staff providing training to the volunteers. “We just grabbed a hold of it and let it grow,” he said. “It’s very rewarding and exhausting.”
The program came out of the congregation’s desire to help in the community. “Our concept of being Christian is a verb,” he said. “It requires action.” Sprecher had heard of other churches doing similar after school programs and approached the nearby Broadway Elementary about a partnership.
Even though the program is held in a church, the children only say one short prayer at the beginning of each session and it’s not specifically Christian. The stories and puppet shows usually discuss character traits like honesty and using good manners. “Nothing we do is based on theology or church,” Sprecher said.