E-Club helps students better themselves

Steve Jobs introduced the iPad to the world recently as Wasilla Middle School quietly continued running e-Club. Granted, e-Club never made the cover of Forbes, but then again, public schools are not public in order to sell stock. If they could, Apple would be at Wasilla Middle looking for a way in.

Monday through Thursday, from 2:15-4:30 p.m., close to 30 Wasilla Middle School students stay after school for e-Club. More than 120 students have taken advantage of the after school tutoring.

No one can quite define the “e” in e-Club. It may stand for excellence, maybe education, maybe energetic, maybe eclectic.

“E-Club is a great tool for kids and parents that help the kids stay accountable for their schoolwork,” explained Assistant Principal Jason Moore.

E-Club is the stepchild of an after school Culture Club initiated in 2008 and supported in part by the Knik Tribal Council that targeted Alaska Native students needing additional support in school. Culture Club successfully eliminated the achievement gap for WMS Natives. That type of progress deserved a second chance as well as access for even more students.

In August, Jesse Carnahan was hired as a Title I Coordinator to organize the after school e-Club in addition to a mentoring program that paired teachers with at-risk students. During e-Club, three teachers and two additional aides from the Mat-Su Day School work with the students every afternoon offering additional time and support with their homework. The students are divided into two classrooms, one devoted to math and science, and another to social studies and language arts.

“I know I wouldn’t be on honor roll if it weren’t for e-Club,” eighth-grader Matt Soto admits. “I didn’t come until third quarter. My mom made me. But it paid off.”

Like Matt, many e-Club students’ parents require the students to come to e-Club.

“I would guess 75 percent of the kids’ parents insist they come to e-Club every day even if they don’t have any work to do,” Michael Mary Ament said. The after-school teachers have access to each e-Club student’s grades, which help even the most adamant student insisting he “has nothing to do” find some work to complete or improve.

Chance Armstrong, a sixth-grader, and sees e-Club this way: “It isn’t the funnest thing in the world, but when I get home I don’t have to worry about homework. That is the best part.”

“E-Club hasn’t caught all the kids or kept all from failing. However, there is only one e-Club regular who ended up on the academic probation list this year. That has to be something,” Carnahan said.

Boys dominate the e-Club rolls with an even split between the grade levels. “Boys are universally behind. That there are so many in e-Club isn’t surprising. It’s encouraging that there is something offered for them now,” Carnahan said.

Title I funding pays for e-Club. The additional Title I funding from the Obama Administration’s 2009 Stimulus Package, allows for not only e-Club tutors, snacks and supplies, but purchases three activity school buses to take everyone home again.

The buses also transport other students staying after school for activities such as sports, robotics, student government, baby-sitter certification classes and Battle of the Books. This service helped provide students with an opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities who otherwise would not have the chance to belong.

For example, last year 20 sixth-grade girls tried volleyball. This year, more than 50 girls joined the team. Wrestling saw a significant increase and track numbers are up by 20 students.

Wasilla Middle plans to continue e-Club next year, after that the two-year stimulus package runs out. Moore is not too concerned.

“Who knows what we will do then? If we find e-Club and the activity buses work for kids, we will figure out a way to continue them just like we figured out a way to try it out.”

It is that type of innovation and problem-solving that makes Jobs’ Apple such a winner in the marketplace, and Wasilla Middle School a leading middle school.

Both organizations did whatever it took to develop a simple idea that in the end makes life so smooth that even sixth-grader Fischer Tresham admits, “I will probably go to e-Club next year. Even if my dad doesn’t make me.”

Emily Forstner teaches at Wasilla Middle School.