HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016 06-06 It takes a village, people: YMCA helps Maplewood school mentor students PIONEER PRESSYMCA, Maplewood school partner to support students
NEWS n EDUCATION
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By I110,l11A II31I!@016'IflIRDIIH I mbeckstrom@pioneerpress.com
June 6, 2016 1 UPDATED: 7 hours ago
An effort to boost the achievement of low-income students at Webster Elementary School in Maplewood begins long before the first bell rings.
A half -mile from school, just before 8 a.m. on a rainy weekday morning, a couple fifth -grade boys thundered down the stairs into the lobby at the IMall)le IPoin 0s IHloinnes
a 1pau•tinneints. Deavion Bosby plopped into a chair and a group of boys peered over his shoulder as he played a Batman game on a laptop he was taking to class for a
presentation.
Girls arrived with folded umbrellas. Fourth -grader Jayla Brown bounced in with her second-grade brother Jaden. Their single mom had caught a bus more than an hour earlier
to herjob cleaning a hospital in downtown St. Paul. But, even with her gone, they would get to school safely and on time through a unique collaboration between Webster and
the YMCA.
"I think everyone is here," said Ashley Redmon, a YMCAyouth worker, as she took the hand of a kindergartner wearing a transparent rain coat dotted with red hearts.
On some mornings, Redmon and her co-worker Courtney Baeyen need to knock on doors to find missing kids, but not this day. They herded the dozen students out the door
and walked through the drizzle to school.
The YMCA's program with Webster evolved to address what principal Mona Perkins calls "the opportunity gap" between low-income kids of color and more affluent, often
white children.
The White BearY has been running an after-school program since 2002 at Maple Pond Homes, where three quarters of the 170 apartments are subsidized through federal
Section 8 and the majority of parents are African-American single moms. After principal Perkins arrived at welbstteu• fou ir-years ago, she asked the nonprofit to do more.
Since the fall of 2013, employees of the Y have walked Maple Pond kids to school, organized 20 minutes of outdoor games before school for all students, helped in classrooms
and ran games during lunch recess. After a two-hour break, they walk Maple Pond kids back to the apartment complex to oversee homework and playtime until 6 p.m.
The nearly dawn -to -dusk attention seems to be making a difference. It eliminated the longstanding problem of tardiness for Maple Ponds kids, which means kids get school
breakfast and start their day more relaxed. Absences dropped by nearly a third.
"We've seen kids in the program make good growth in reading," Perkins said. "And really, what's been amazing is the positive impact on their social and emotional
development."
"I think what's really unique and what's helped it become successful is that it's truly partnership between the parents, the YMCA and us," added Perkins, who heads a school
where nearly nine out of 10 kids receive free or reduced price lunch. "Neither is trying to take the place of the the other. We're all working together."
The YMCA runs morning and after-school programs throughout the Twin Cities at its Y branches and in schools. The Maplewood program is one of only three located inside a
low-income apartment complex (others are in Minnetonka and Little Canada), and unique in embedding its part-time Yemployees in a school for part of the day.
Principal Perkins would like to see the program expand, but the Y is scrambling to fund even Maple Ponds after a United Way grant wasn't renewed, said White Bear Lake Area
YMCA director Shane Hoefer.
The program costs about $85,000, not including administrative support, he said. The school and the city of Maplewood also kick in funds.
"We know this program works and make a difference for kids," Hoefer said.
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YMCA, Maplewood school partner to support students
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After school breakfast, Redmon headed to a first -grade class to listen to children read. Baeyen headed to kindergarten teacher Amy Tumbleson's class, where earlier in the
year, she taught her students to tie their shoes.
"I've had quite a few challenging kiddos and Courtney has established relationships with them," Tumbleson said. "The Y program has been wonderful. They spend time after
school with the kids doing homework, which is huge. It helps with communication with parents, with getting permission slips back."
And it's clearly helpful to have an extra adult.
When a little boy (he didn't live at Maple Ponds), started running and grabbing other kids' books, Tumbleson sent him into the hall with Baeyen, where he kicked over a
garbage can before Baeyen calmed him down.
The presence ofY staff at recess has also reduced outbursts and conflicts that used to spill over into class, Perkins said . Fewer children have behavior referrals, especially
Maple Pond kids.
"A lot of kids don't come with social emotional skills," Perkins said. "Playtime is where we would see most of the issues. I needed to get adults to step in and engage with the
kids so the kids could develop those skills."
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After school, Redmon and Baeyen walked 15 children back to Maple Ponds, chatting with them about everything from puddles, to how many days of school before summer, to
what color Redmon should - hypothetically - dye her hair.
"Make it pink!" shrieked kindergartner Sabrina Gage.
"No, pink is a little bright," Redmon said. "Purple is more subtle."
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YMCA, Maplewood school partner to support students
The apartment management company provides a free room for the Y's after-school and summer program, with doors opening onto a shaded lawn. The kids did homework for
30 minutes or worked on extra math, reading and state capitol worksheets that the Y keeps in black binders labeled with each child's name. Then they made fruit "pizza" with
vanilla yogurt and kiwi, pineapple and berries.
"Here we have lots of fun and I get to spend time with my friends," said fifth -grader Ne'onna Quintana, as she helped herself to extra blueberries.
After snack, the children headed outside to play.
"When I tell my co-workers about this, they say I am so lucky to have this program," said Elena Washington, Jayla's and Jaden's mom.
On the days Washington starts her hospital housekeeping job at 7 a.m., her aunt comes to her apartment to get her four children ready for school. Washington is grateful she
doesn't have to ask her aunt to take them to school and watch them in the afternoon as well.
"It makes it so much easier for me," she said. "I can come home and change my clothes and make dinner. We don't have to worry about homework, because they do it here."
Some parents are not working, but still rely on the program as a haven for their children. Just before 6 p.m., Redmon walked six-year-old Laniyah McDonald across the lawn to
meet her mom Shanterica Nunn.
"She had a good day, and she just had a snack," Redmon said, as she handed over Laniyah's backpack.
Nunn had carpal tunnel surgery more than a year ago to treat problems caused by working in a chicken processing plant in Mississippi and exacerbated by lifting patients as a
home health aid.
The damage was too far gone and now she can barely wash her own dishes or hold a job that requires use of her hands, she said. She is depressed, she said, and has a lot on
her mind.
"It's been real helpful to me," Nunn said about the Y. "I know she's safe, and they take really good care of her."
Tags: Education, Maplewood
Maja Beckstrom covers nonprofit organizations for the Pioneer Press. She was hired as a religion reporter, spent a few years covering poverty, and recently wrote her last
Pioneer Press Family Outings column,because her teenager started complaining about hanging out with her. She's won awards, including a Premack for her year-long series
about a grandmother and four children struggling through the aftermath of a domestic violence homicide. She has also swung on a trapeze in the name ofjournalism.
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