News on a former Pathfinder Afterschool Program

A news article on a former Pathfinder after school program...
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Results from the first planning meeting

Several of us got together on Thursday and discussed the Pathfinder Afterschool program. Here are some notes from the meeting.

For those that did not attend, I know I would be particularly interested in input on 1) the number of classes and choice of classes, 2) the fees, 3) how to manage keeping track of registration, attendance, $$, etc.

Some notes on the meeting of the ASPSC – reconstructed after the fact by Eric, so they may not be complete.

Attending: Lisa C., David D, Eric B, Lashanna W, Jenn K

Currently, the parks department funds some after school activities, but only for older kids. This does include transport. However, it is not available for younger students. Our program will be complimentary to this program. Historically we had a large afterschool program with SoundSchools, but this became defunct. The idea originated to try to bring schools together to be strengthened.

David contributed that it was important for him that some of the programs be academically supportive, such as reading or math.

In order to match what is done with the current parks funded program, we will make our classes typically 8 weeks long, one hour, and start the first week of February. After some discussion, we decided to try to have 6 classes this fall – 3 for the older kids and funded through the parks department, and three that we put together.

Space will be an issue. We may have some use of the library, culture house, the gym, and the cafeteria, but this will have to be worked out with BT who have used these areas a lot.

We are considering the following, depending on working out space and instruction:
Unicycle, Double Dutch, Mandarin, 1 or 2 art classes, a technology class, and/or another miscellaneous class. In the next round we would like to see a science class, perhaps chess, and some other classes so as to keep the classes interesting.

It seems like it would be good to provide a small snack for participants – hopefully fruit from the district and/or some protein.

Probably we should charge a registration fee of ~$5, a class fee and a separate materials fee, to be determined by the instructor. There was a suggestion to have a PTSA member rate and a non-member rate.

Eric proposed that we try to use Pathfinder teachers as we can because they can use their own rooms, and will be very dependable.

The group thought it important to make scholarships available. Eric will request that PTSA help support these as well as using a small amount of money for class fees and registration. In addition, we will have some volunteer positions that will earn free class credit. Requests for scholarship will go directly to Lisa Clayton to maintain privacy.

We discussed a significant late pick up fee and search fee, equivalent to BT.
This program needs to be brought under the auspices of the PTSA and their insurance policy.
For communication, since the Blog is not being widely used, Lashanna and Jenn suggested using Google groups

First Meeting of the Pathfinder School Afterschool Program Steering Group

We will meet Thursday at 4 p.m. at Eric's house.
Our agenda:

• Classes, schedule, and perhaps instructors
• Tuition/Fees
• Administration
  
• Enrollment
  
• How will we handle some basic logistical things

I expect the meeting to take a little more than an hour and children are welcome.

When to meet?

I have 4 proposed times for us to meet. I will chose the one with the greatest number of “I can"s. I know not everyone will be able to make it, that is fine – there will be ample ways for everyone to contribute including leaving comments on the blog.

Choices for times are:

• Tuesday August 19^th at 7p
• Thursday August 21^st at 10a
• Thursday August 21 at 4p
• Saturday August 24^th at 10a

We will meet at my house, which is a block from school.

Open Forum

Here is a place for you to put other comments.

How should we handle requests for financial support?

Should we request that the PTSA is requested to support scholarships? Should we include a certain amount of money for scholarships in everyone's fees? Should we request voluntary contributions to a scholarship fund? Should we only offer scholarships to those who help with the program?

What classes would you like to see?

When we decide what classes we are going to offer, especially at first, we need to take into account lots of things. What are the most important considerations? Which are less important?

• Offering classes that parents have said they want in greater numbers?
• Offering a class/activity that works well within the schools curriculum (i.e. offering music since there won't be separate music instruction next year at PF)?
• Offering classes that match the school's mission? (e.g. Native studies, whole-child education)
• Offering classes that individuals really want and are able to commit to doing the hard work to make them happen?

I am not really looking for answers about which classes we should offer, but more how we should pick which ones we should offer....