Weekly Media Roundup: July 27, 2022

Durham Parents Discuss Ways to Cut 700+ Waitlist for After-School Care, CBS 17 (North Carolina)

More than 700 students in Durham, North Carolina are currently on the waitlist for the Durham School District’s before- and afterschool programs. In response to the community’s concern, the district held a town hall meeting with parents and community leaders to address the need to recruit an additional 60 staff members. “I feel like we were able to get some great ideas out there, but now I want to see the action,” parent Lorie Flocks told CBS 17. “I want to see what’s going to change, what’s going to happen, how quickly it’s going to take to get there.” Parents recommended increasing salaries, utilizing parent volunteers and recruiting college students for part-time positions.

Thanks for Supporting Afterschool Programs for At-Risk Youth, Paso Robles Daily News (California)

With funding from the American Rescue Plan, the Paso Robles Youth Arts Center in California can continue its mission to offer free creative arts afterschool programs to at-risk students. In a recent letter to the editor in the Paso Robles Daily News, Emily Jagger, the development director at the Youth Arts Center, expresses appreciation for these funds and for lawmakers’ recognition of afterschool programs’ role in the community. “We recognize there are many pieces of the puzzle that help mitigate or prevent homelessness. After-school programs such as the Paso Robles Youth Arts Center, Boys & Girls Clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters and others, help deter homelessness and create a safety net for youth. They have a profound impact on the lives of our young people who might otherwise fall through the cracks,” Jagger writes.

First Lady Jill Biden Visits Connecticut Program Working to Address Summer, Pandemic Learning Loss, Hartford Courant (Connecticut)

Last week, First Lady Jill Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona met with students, participated in a Lego engineering activity, and read books at the Horizons summer learning program in New Haven, Connecticut. The visit was the first stop on the leaders’ national summer learning tour designed to highlight how funds from the American Rescue Plan are boosting out-of-school time programs during the pandemic. “We’ve always seen in the summertime, the gaps grow academically and opportunity-wise between higher income students and low income students who just don’t have those opportunities. COVID turbocharged that,” Aaron Dworkin, CEO of the National Summer Learning Association, told the Hartford Courant. “We’re putting in all this investment to not just bring kids back academically, but also socially and emotional and health-wise.”

As Interest Rebounds, LBUSD Looks to Expand Summer Programming, Long Beach Business Journal (California)

Thanks to funding from California’s new Expanded Learning Opportunities Program, Long Beach Unified School District’s Winners Reach Amazing Potential (WRAP) afterschool program expanded its capacity this summer and will continue doing so in years to come. “Our plan is to essentially double the size of our summer programming,” Assistant Superintendent of Early Learning & Elementary Schools Brian Moskovitz told the Long Beach Business Journal.  More than 10,000 students are attending WRAP programs this summer, which offer weekly field trips, science, art, sports and drama.