SALEM — Salem educators have created a new after-school program that combines homework, book club, fellowship, fun activities, and snack time to help at-risk students in grades 7, 8, and 9.
Called Quaker Club 2.0, the program meets twice a week and is one of the ways junior high principal Matt Ziegler said they are trying to achieve the goal of increasing support intervention for lower secondary students.
“We are very excited about this,” Amie Cochran, a seventh grade teacher, said.
Cochran and high school intervention specialist Nicole Rothbauer pitched the idea for the program to Superintendent Sean Kirkland and Ziegler as a way to focus on the at-risk population, deciding to start with students in grades 7, 8 and 9th grade. They put up flyers and spoke to students who were having difficulty meeting the requirements to pass their courses. Attendance started slowly, but now 10-15 children show up regularly.
Each session begins with snacks, a welcome and a discussion of the day’s activities, then there is homework registration and the completion of an online assessment progress diary, followed by almost an hour of work on missing/late or ongoing homework or small group activities for catch-up students. The final half hour is for book club reading, journaling, discussion, and Maker Space activities.
Rothbauer said a set schedule works best with children, and homework check-ins and progress information are shared with their teachers. Cochran said so far the students are progressing and progressing.
“We are looking for books that will motivate students,” says Rothbauer.
The first book was “Make your bed.”
Salem graduate Kasey Jamison, a psychology major from Kent State University’s Salem campus specializing in adolescent or child psychology, works with the program on aspects of mental health.
They all explained that some of the children have a lot to do outside the school walls, which can affect their performance in school. Cochran said they had a big mental health issue with a lot of kids in school. This program can give them some structure that can be used throughout their lives. There are also outreach services for psychological support.
According to Ziegler, other changes introduced this year include an orientation camp for 7th graders before the start of the school year, joint planning schedules with staff to implement meetings team and setting up rewards for students who do the right things. With the points they earn, they can use them to purchase items from a school store or teacher stores.
On personnel, the board approved: teachers moving up the salary scale Nicole Rothbauer, MA plus 15 to MA plus 30, and Matthew Mowery, MA to MA plus 15; the awarding of union offers to Kathy Arsena for the custodial position at Buckeye Elementary and to Serena Hawkins for the custodial position at Reilly Elementary; and certified alternates Linda Jordan, Rebecca Segetti and Tonyea Kellison.
The board approved a new three-and-a-half-year contract for Hannah E. Mullins School of Practical Nursing Principal Christina Devlin with $37,500 for Jan. 1 to June 30, $67,500 for July 1 to 30 June 2023, $68,850 for July July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 and $70,227 from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025.
Additional approved athletic contacts were: varsity baseball head coach Mike DeBarr, varsity assistant coach Andy Clutter, JV head coach Jake Career and JV assistant coach Ryan Powell; boys’ assistant coach Teddy Yuhaniak, assistant coaches Tom Rumsey and Lex Murray and girls’ head coach Bethany Glasser.
The council gratefully accepted a donation of $3,889 from Chad and Krista Rhodes for the baseball field’s public address system and extended the natural gas purchase contract with IGS for three years.
The next meeting will be February 28 at 7 p.m.