The sign hanging outside Sue Farrelly’s office at Concord High School says it all.
“21C is for anyone, anytime.”
Because that’s the point of the Capital City 21st Century Community Learning Centers, based at four schools in the Concord School District. Any student at any of the schools, can and should be able to take advantage of all the program has to offer – any day they want.
21C is a five-year, federally funded grant program. Each state education agency receives funds based on its share of Title I funding for low-income students at high-poverty, low performing schools. The funds are then dispersed to individual schools or districts based on grant application approvals.
“It’s a very competitive grant,” said Farrelly, the 21C program coordinator.
It gives students, from kindergarten through 12th grade, the opportunity to work on academics, try new hobbies and sometimes, just have fun. And it happens outside of the typical school day, in a structured environment staffed by school personnel, volunteers and other students.
There’s about 15 hours of programming per week at each school and what’s offered changes every so often.
“Each day has a schedule and those schedules change every so many weeks,” Farrelly said.
Concord High and Rundlett are in the fourth year of the grant and plan to reapply next year before the half decade worth of funding runs out. Broken Ground School and Mill Brook School are in year two.
Now, the first three years of the grant are fully funded and the fourth, which the two older schools are in now, get funded at 75 percent. Year five is funded at 65 percent and if you are chosen after reapplying for another five years, it’s only funded at that 65 percent moving forward. But despite the lower amount of funds, the schools still offer some really great programs.
“Anybody at any of these schools can be a part of it,” Farrelly said.
Abbot-Downing School and Beaver Meadow are in the midst of the application process – which by the way, is made up of 228 pages worth of stuff to fill out and submit.
But we don’t want to bore you with all the details of the grant process. No, we’d rather share all the great stuff that 21C offers students in the four Concord schools.
Concord High
At the high school, there are 472 students registered, which means they’ve come at least once this year. And while that’s down from last year in the total number of students who took part in at least one day, that’s still a lot of students taking full advantage of the programs. They average anywhere from 19 to 89 students at the high school and a lot of them go just about every day.
The program is free for students and is done on a drop-in basis. The high school offers a wide range of stuff, like cooking, Frisbee in the warmer weather and ping pong when it’s rainy or cold outside. The students can also take part in things like Pies and Painting or Canvas and Cookies, a play off the paint and sip places that have been popping up all over the state – just minus the adult beverages. So the students still get to paint a specific scene or, like last week, a fresh arrangement of flowers, but instead they’ll enjoy baked goods made by the 21C staff.
“The older kids can tell you easier what they want,” Farrelly said.
A lot of the programs that go on at the high school are academic based. There’s general academic help, along with subject specific assistance, English Language Learning tutoring, SAT prep, and college and career readiness. They also have computer access for projects and students who may not have the use of a computer at home.
“If we’re open, there’s academic helps for students,” Farrelly said.
Rundlett
Since it is a school program, there’s plenty of academic stuff going on at Rundlett. Unlike the other schools, Rundlett splits up its three hours by doing one hour before school and two more in the afternoon. Homework and academic support are offered during both sessions. There’s also computer access for the same reason stated above, but the middle school students also have plenty of cool programs that you won’t get at the high school.
In addition to underwater robotics, which we’ve highlighted for you starting on page 20, there are after-school groups dedicated to regular robotics, rocketry, aquaponics and art exploration. But that’s not all. If you want to sew or knit, you can do that, too. Outdoor games? They offer things like Kan Jam, kickball and soccer. Kind of sounds like it’s approaching the amount of fun we have at work.
“A lot of the time it’s stuff parents may not have time for,” Farrelly said.
And don’t forget about cooking, yoga and every pre teen’s favorite, Minecraft.
“One of our goals is to open kids up to new experiences,” Farrelly said. “To some degree, the sky is the limit.”
Rundlett has 241 students signed up this year, although there is a $25 registration fee, but that’s for the entire year and only because they need to offset some of the funding they lost. And if you break that down over the course of 180 days, that’s about 13 cents a day.
Mill Brook and Broken Ground
There is a cost associated with the elementary school programs, but most parents would have to pay for after-school care anyway.
The cost per week is dependent on how many hours the child spends in the program. If it’s less than six hours (two days), it’s free. Anything more than two days, the cost is at most $70 per week for a child. What a family pays is based on the same sliding scale used by the Boys & Girls Club, which partners with 21C at the elementary schools.
“But no student is ever refused for any inability to pay,” Farrelly said.
They also get to have a lot of fun at the younger kid level and they’ve already surpassed the numbers from last year with 289 students registered.
The afternoons are very structured. The students get outside time to get some energy out – they were just in school all day – have a snack, a little group time and then split the remaining time into academic choice and enrichment (the really fun stuff).
“The elementary program is a little different and much more structured,” Farrelly said.
At Broken Ground (which is students in third through fifth grade) there’s stuff like Minute to Win it (keep reading the issue), Monopoly club, fashion club and mystery box challenge. At Mill Brook – kindergarten through second grade – they have things going on right now like Lego City, recycled art and build it club. They also show movies on Fridays, and did we mention there’s snacks?
“There’s some busy, busy afternoons,” Farrelly said. “The younger, the busier.”
For more on 21C, contact Farrelly at sfarrelly@concordnhschools.net or visit facebook.com/Concord21C.
