Enrichment success

By DEVIN WEEKS

Staff Writer

ATHOL — In one classroom, the pounding of determined hammers could be heard as nails punched into wooden birdhouses on Wednesday afternoon.

Down the hall, a more contemplative quiet had settled over a room as students studied their abstract owl paintings and decided where to have their paintbrushes land next.

“I think it’s awesome,” said Athol Elementary third-grader Sierra Nalen as she worked on her masterpiece in Brandi Rhead’s after-school painting class.

"It teaches us about art," she said. "It’s really creative. It makes you let your expressions come out and you can paint your expressions."

Athol’s students aren’t just painting, building birdhouses or making cool stuff out of K’NEX after the school bell rings for the day. They’re making new friends, strengthening relationships with teachers and continuing to learn in an environment that is safe, welcoming and mentally stimulating while their parents get to squeeze in one more hour of work and travel time before picking them up.

"I’ve been trying to do something like this since my kids were little,” said advanced learning placement teacher Julie Anderson. “This is a fulfillment of my heart’s desire."

Anderson, who has worked at Athol for more than 20 years, knew her school was in severe need of after-school programming when she and a colleague applied for funds through the Community Care Grant from United Way of North Idaho in 2016.

Athol didn’t have onsite after-school options for its kids. Some would go to the library, others would just hang around as they waited for their parents, many of whom commute to Coeur d'Alene or farther for work.

"We just don’t have anywhere else for them to go,” said Principal Kathy Thomas.

Anderson and her team drafted a program plan that included cooking classes, judo, pottery, coding and other activities that all take place at the school.

“They recruited teachers and parents to volunteer their time initially,” said Keri Stark, director of community impact for United Way. “Now, two years on, Julie has leveraged $10,000 for her school, is able to provide a small stipend for after-school teachers, host parent nights to showcase students’ creativity and kids in the judo program went on to Junior Olympics. She even created and deployed a summer day camp focus on science, technology, engineering, art and math that stemmed from the program."

The program is only $20 per class, and each class is about four or five sessions. Scholarships are available as well to provide support for Athol’s large demographic of low- and middle-income (LMI) families.

"This census tract is between 20 and 80 percent LMI," Stark said. "There’s not a lot of extra money for extra activities for a lot of families, and definitely not things that are in Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene."

Anderson said the after-school activities are open for all of their kids.

"We want to have it be sustainable and accessible to all families," she said.

Rhead is usually a behavioral intervention paraprofessional during the school day but loves being able to expose the students to the creativity of art after school. Anderson said all of the teachers and parent volunteers are enthusiastic to host sessions that introduce students to activities they enjoy, from stained glass to working with circuits.

"We have a lot of extracurricular activities here, but we don't have art regularly throughout the week," Rhead said. "There's so many kids, as you can see, that enjoy that … They really need that to help grow and express themselves and build some confidence. Some of them feel bad and think they're not good at it, so we talk about how everyone's an artist."

Corbin Zaugra, a first-grader, was one of the students in the birdhouse class. He said he stays at the school and does activities every Wednesday.

"It's good," he said. "I like Wednesdays."

"More of these programs really need to be available to kids everywhere," said second-grade teacher Tina Wittenbrock. "It is a really great time to just get to know kids. I'm working with older-grade kids. Some of them might know me because of my face in the building, but they're not my students in my classroom, so I get to hang with them on a different level."

Stark said these after-school opportunities are incredibly important for kids.

"The after-school enrichment program at Athol is one of my favorites," she said. "For me, a lot of it is the connection to rural, that's very close to home for me, and that paying it forward and investing in our kids, because somebody invested in us when we were kids."

In a June 2018 letter discussing the impact of the programming, Thomas said it "has had far-reaching positive effects on our students and families."

"This program has provided a resource that has been missing in our community for our Athol Elementary students," she wrote. "This program has really enhanced our school and made a great community connection by bringing in outside resources to provide enriching opportunities our students would not otherwise have access to."