Extended School Day Helps Student Catch Up, Get Ahead

Now in its second year, our extended school day program continues to help our community’s high schoolers stay on-track to graduate.

At Brookings-Harbor High School we are committed to providing your child with all the tools we can to help them be successful in their high school career and beyond. The Extended School Day is a service we started and expanded during the 2017-18 school year, that helps students stay on track to graduate.

Extended School Day is open to all high school students from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on regular school days in the BHHS Library. The Extended School Day program provides:

Adult and peer tutors to work one on one with your child to get them the help they need.
Snacks provided by the local Brookings Harbor Community Helpers Emergency Food Bank to ensure they have the energy to put their minds to work.
Adult assistance to help them navigate the complex world of managing multiple deadlines.
Bus service at 4:30 p.m. to bring your child home.

This program is not a punishment, but an opportunity to access help or get ahead outside of school hours. Our coordinator Gretchen Francisco hosts office hours in the mornings, and additional times can be arranged to fit you and your child’s schedule. Ms. Francisco also visits classrooms throughout the day to work one-on-one with students who are struggling or failing. Her passion is to help kids and show them that there are people out there that are on their team no matter what!

Extended School Day is considered mandatory for 9th and 10th graders, who are failing at least one class. “If a kid doesn’t show up two weeks running, I go find them. I make arrangements with their elective teachers to take them out of class and have them work 1:1 with me.”

However, the program also has many students who opt to come before they are told, according to Ms. Francisco. In addition, Leadership Class students give at least 8 hours of tutoring help to the program each and has collectively volunteered more than 200 hours so far this year.

The program provides resources for students in need including snacks daily from the Brookings Harbor Community Helpers Emergency Food Bank and 50 take-home "snack packs" per week. BHHS Life Skills students from Ms. Ballou's class visit the food bank each Wednesday to pick up and sort food for the program. In any given week, the program shares 210 to 520 snacks daily during and after school along with the 50 food packets that teachers distribute to students in need. Typical food items include milk, applesauce, fresh fruit, crackers, granola bars, and pasta. "The idea is to get food into the home for the weekend,” Ms. Francisco said. The program also is a distribution point for coats from the annual KCRE/KPOD Coats for Kids drive.

“It's awesome, connecting kids with kids, and helping kids to see that we can succeed," Ms. Francisco said. "The food helped get the kids in the door. When I started we only had 10 kids a day, now I’m averaging 100 per week."

For more information contact Ms. Francisco at 541-469-2108 ext. 4016.