MAYOR ANNOUNCES PILOT AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS
Jobs for America's Graduates program to expand into Wright, Cameron middle schools
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (February 18, 2009) -
Mayor Karl Dean announced today that starting this semester up to 40 middle school students will have the opportunity to participate in a pilot afterschool program based on curriculum from national nonprofit Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG).
The pilot program is a partnership between the Mayor’s Office, PENCIL Foundation, Nashville Career Advancement Center and Metro Nashville Public Schools, and supported by the mayor’s Education First Fund. It will serve 20 seventh grade students two days a week at each of the two middle schools in the Glencliff cluster, Cameron and Wright. A second year of programming will be available to the students during their eighth grade year.
Dean made the announcement at Wright Middle School Wednesday morning to an assembly of seventh graders eligible for the program. In attendance with the mayor were two Glencliff High School seniors who will soon be graduating from the high school component of JAG. The Glencliff students will hold a similar recruitment assembly at Cameron Middle on Thursday.
“We know that our students only spend about 20 percent of their waking hours in school, and that what they do out of school greatly influences whether or not they’ll succeed in school,” Dean said. “This program is the first step towards making consistent, high-quality afterschool programs available to all of our students, especially those at the middle school level because that is a critical time for determining whether or not a student will stay in school and graduate.”
Candy Markman, Afterschool Program Planning Director for the mayor’s Education First initiative, has worked over the last four months to bring the various partners in the pilot program together.
“The PENCIL Foundation already has a strong relationship with the schools in the Glencliff cluster and does a tremendous job of administering the JAG program in several of Nashville’s high schools,” Markman said. “By expanding the program, these students will have consistent out-of-school support from middle school to high school that facilitates connections between school and work – in short, it teaches them that success in school leads to success later in life.”
With Education First funding, the PENCIL Foundation has hired a specialist to coordinate logistics at the two middle school sites and deliver the curriculum. MNPS is providing facility space and support from their staff, as well as late buses to transport the students home.
In addition to the afterschool component of the program, the participating students will be offered a stipend to attend a summer camp in June of this year in collaboration with the Nashville Career Advancement Center.
Dean began focusing on afterschool programs as one of his education initiatives after the Project for Student Success, a 40-member education taskforce he convened, determined that only 10 percent of Metro Nashville middle school students participate in structured afterschool programs. The Glencliff cluster was selected for the pilot because only 6 percent of middle school students at Wright and Cameron participate in a regular afterschool program.
For media inquiries contact:
Janel Lacy
(615) 862-6020
janel.lacy@nashville.gov