Children's voices echo down the halls of Chase Street Elementary School on the Friday before Thanksgiving break. 

 

After the car riders and bus riders are all dismissed, it's time for Chandler Pendley to step into her role as the After-School Program site coordinator and signal the classroom teachers to dismiss each grade one-by-one to ASP. 

 

Students who attend ASP go straight into the cafeteria. Once the different grades file into the cafeteria, they are sent to the kitchen to meet Pendley and pick up their snacks for the day.

 

After-school programs are beneficial to at-risk students because they provide extra academic support, increase social skills and create a fun and relaxed learning environment. Students are able to attend ASP and just be kids. 

 

 “All After School Programs are required to provide one unit, which is a snack and a drink. Usually, it's like chips and a juice or an apple and a milk, things like that,” Pendley said.

Pendley works alongside two other people on her team. Some of her day-to-day roles include managing the front office, passing out units, and communicating with parents. The whole ASP team works together on paperwork for attendance and billing. 

 

Before becoming site coordinator, Pendley worked as a regular ASP staff member. ASP staff members consist of young adults and some college students. Each staff member is designated and assigned a grade level to work with.

 

“The responsibilities are a little bit more focused on an individual, like not individual kids, but like a grade level of kids. So last year, I worked with first grade all school year,” she said. 

 

“It's such a fun age. And it was such a good group. And it really set me up to be successful in the position I am now because I'm very familiar with all the students that are in our program, and I already knew some of the families. So that was super helpful,” Pendley said. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Barrett Binder, a current ASP staff member, explained that after snacktime, the kids have time to play on the playground and just be kids. Staff members are able to establish relationships with the grades they are assigned to. The relationships the ASP staff and students have built are special. The kids respect and respond well towards the staff leaders. 

 

The ASP is designed to create a safe, relaxed and enjoyable environment for elementary students who might otherwise be left unsupervised in the afternoons. The program takes place directly after school until 6 p.m. every day. Attendance ranges from about 115 to 130 students per afternoon. A hundred students is considered high for typical ASP attendance in the Clarke County School District. 

 

This program really allows students to interact with others outside of scheduled classroom time and just be kids.  ASP is also able to accommodate at-risk students and provide them with resources they might need in the afternoons. 

 

“If a student has an IEP or a disability, we're super aware of it and understand things like, triggers or things that need to be adapted or accommodations that we can provide. And a lot of students with behavior issues or disabilities really thrive in after school because we still have the expectations and very similar rules that students have during the day,” Pendley said. 

 

The ASP program partners with Broderick Flanigan, a local Athens artist and community activist. Flanigan comes to the school and is able to tutor kids who need extra help with their schoolwork. Flanigan partnered with the school’s counselor to create a list of recurring students who already receive additional help in the classrooms during the day, to ensure they continue to receive help during ASP. This is a great resource for kids, the ASP program is very beneficial to at-risk students and other students with disabilities because they provide additional help and tutoring to meet their needs. 

 

While the ASP benefits many at-risk students, there is a visible disadvantage for low-income students to access this resource. The cost for one day of ASP is $6 for one student and $4 for an additional sibling. There is a special rate of $4 for students of CCSD employees. While $6 seems fairly low, this adds up throughout the week and during the year, making it inaccessible to lower-income families.

 

Pendley addressed the issue of low-income students being at an unfair disadvantage to accessing resources like the ASP. One solution that Chase Street has started to implement is the “Froggy-ship,” which is a scholarship that low-income families are able to apply for in hopes of being awarded money to support their students attending ASP. There have only been about five scholarships handed out, so there is still plenty of room for improvement.