Cleburne
After-school program aims to help students prepare for TAKS
The East Cleburne Community recently opened a new after-school program called Project CAN.
“We did a program called SCORE, and it was about 10-12 kids and mainly included TAKS test preparation,” said Executive Director Dexter Baldwin. “But this program will top out at 50 students.”
The program began on Monday and will continue through the end of May.
Students are picked up from school and taken to the Booker T. Washington center.
“We’ve kind of adopted Santa Fe,” Baldwin said. “We are working with teachers who selected students from third, fourth and fifth grade.”
Activities include snacks and recreation in addition to tutoring.
“Our program director is Bonnie Hawkins,” he said. “She has done an absolute outstanding job preparing this. Bonnie has had a school before and has also worked at HOPE Farms in Fort Worth, an after-school program for boys with a father in prison.
“She’s putting it together and guiding our instructors.”
Instructors are Jody Breland, language arts instructor; Brian Moore, mathematics instructor; and Keri Worth, computer lab instructor.
“These are all people that have had experience educating in some way or another,” Baldwin said. “We are just utilizing their gifts in the field that they’ve mastered.”
Two other employees, Karen Correa and Roy Cook, serve as teacher assistants and transportation coordinators.
Volunteers are needed to help tutor the children.
“It is open to anyone that loves kids and is willing to help educate them. We need people for anything from helping a child to learn math to letting them read to them,” he said. “For our program to run efficiently we do need about 12 volunteers each day.”
A new aspect to this program is parents’ involvement.
“For so long we have just focused on working with the kids,” he said. “Now we’re bringing the parents in. They are required to attend two sessions every month.”
Parent lessons include topics such as schedules, learning styles, homework without tears, growth and development, brain food — food for thought, creative memory tactics and don’t lose it over the summer.
“That last one, ‘don’t lose it over the summer,’ is geared towards encouraging the parents to continue working with the students over the summer so they don’t lose everything they’re taught,” Baldwin said.
Another new aspect is an incentive program for the students.
“We realize in the socioeconomic environment attendance is going to be a struggle, but there is an incentive for the students,” he said. “They earn points for attendance and behavior. Rewards include educational items that are still useful for the students.”
Congressman Chet Edwards, D-Waco, helped obtain funding for the project.
“This project is also because Edwards requested funding specifically for an after-school program for ECCC,” Baldwin said. “It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time but haven’t had the resources to put it together. Because of Chet’s efforts with that funding, we are able to put this on.”
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