Jumping into after-school enrichment:

Scroggs Elementary School’s Jump Time Program

While their classmates are at home watching their afternoon cartoons or solving math problems, 44 students at Mary Scroggs Elementary School are participating in a new after-school program that combines fun electives with academic help.

Jump Time, an enrichment program created with grant money from the North Carolina Department of Education, kicked off its first six-week session September 5, at the school in Southern Village. The grant, which designated Scroggs as a 21^st Century Community Learning Center, provided $299,000 to fund Jump Time.

Adam Eigenrauch, the program's coordinator, said Jump Time is designed for students who need extra academic support and enrichment.

"Every kid deserves the chance to be supervised in an environment where they can experience new things," Eigenrauch said.

Those new things include electives with names reminiscent of summer camp, Arts Safari, Creative Drama, Martial Arts, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Cartooning and the Frog Street Journal (the school’s newspaper).

From 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Jump Time students choose to participate in one of the six electives taught by Scroggs teachers and members of the community.

Jane Lee, a site supervisor for Scroggs’ Jump Time program, called Tuesday’s kickoff a little chaotic, but pointed out “the kids thought the activities were cool.”

Lee described a fourth grader’s enthusiasm about making a mask during her Arts Safari elective hour and a group of Jump Time students readily asking the martial arts instructor about certain moves on the way to the gym, where the group meets.

Although Jump Time targets students who need an academic boost--and may not be able to afford specialized tutoring or after school care--it also welcomes students to the elective hour who have paid for after school care. Nineteen students have taken advantage of this opportunity at Scroggs.

The elective hour is almost like having cookies before dinner because at 4 p.m. the gears shift and Jump Time students focus on academics until 5 p.m. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students who have been trained as tutors and daytime Scroggs teachers provide instruction in areas such as math, reading and writing. The number of teachers and tutors participating allow for a low student-to-teacher ratio, said Kim Hoke, assistant to the superintendent, on Wednesday. She added that this ratio helps students get the individual attention they need.

Excited about the potential of Jump Time, Hoke said, “We only see it as an expanding thing.”

Jump Time students can choose to participate in the program for the entire year; however, Eigenrauch hopes that the first Jump Timers will make enough progress in six weeks that they won’t need the extra tutoring and the program can be opened up to more students.

The 21^st Century Community Learning Center Grant is for three years and was also awarded to Culbreth Middle School in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district and Stanford Middle School in the Orange County district. Culbreth used the money to beef up an already existing after-school program that enrolls 195 students, Hoke said.

And why did Scroggs name their program Jump Time?

Easy, said Eigenrauch. “We’re the Scroggs Frogs.”

Sources:

1. Adam Eigenrauch, Jump Time coordinator. School phone number: 918-7165

2. Kim Hoke, assistant to the superintendent. Phone number: 967-8211, ext. 227

3. Jane Lee, site supervisor at Scroggs. Home phone number:

4. http://www.chapelhillnews.com/Issues/2000/08/09/school14.html (incorrectly refers to the program as “Jump Start”)