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Volunteers Make B.F. Day School Hum
Jerry Congleton, retired investment banker, helps Da'veon Braxton with math and reading. Congleton volunteers three days a week and has developed close relationships with his students. |
College and high school students get academic credit and work experience, workers at nearby Getty Images get paid release time from their employer to come help out with computer skills and graphics know-how. Retirees get satisfying work and rewarding relationships with kids. Parents get to spend more time with their kids. Neighbors help to strengthen an important community anchor.
According to Margo Siegenthaler, volunteer coordinator for the school, each volunteer might spend 3-6 hours a week, helping teachers run classrooms or working one-on-one tutoring kids who need a little personal attention to get through some of their difficult subjects.
Volunter classroom aides take kids on field trips and provide a second pair of hands for beleaguered teachers. They also serve on the playground, in gym and in special classes such as art.
B.F. Day has long been a bilingual school for the whole system, and also enrolls 70 children from homeless families. Both groups make a big demand on volunteers time. About 50% of the students come from the Fremont neighborhood and 50% from other parts of the city.
AmeriCorps volunteers, a senior citizen group has its headquarters in the school building and many members who volunteer to work with kids, building relationships that last over several years.
Another large group of volunteers runs the annual auction which this year raised the astonishing sum of $43,000 to help support the school programs.
B.F. Day has a budget of $1.3 million a year. But most of that money goes to pay for teachers salaries. Only $20,000 is left from school district funds for all other activities in the school. The money raised by the auction pays for a 1/2 time art teacher. And the volunteer corps helps enrich the school program far beyond what taxpayer funding would permit.
Jerry Congleton is a retired investment banker who spends many hours in the school each week as a tutor. Right now he is working with two students, Da'veon Braxton and J.R. Preston. Both are bright eager children who at some point in their schooling fell behind and had trouble catching up.
Janet Preston, J.R.'s foster mother told me that Jerry Congleton had been so important in J.R.'s development that she hopes they will continue to work together even after J.R. moves on to middle school next year. "Jerry's an important party of the whole supportive environment that B.F. Day Provides," Preston said.
"Our volunteers are a priceless treasure," Principal Susan McCloskey proclaims. "They are a vital integral part of the high quality education we want to provide to every child."
Jerry Congleton, retired investment banker, helps Da'veon Braxton with math and reading. Congleton volunteers three days a week and has developed close, strong relationships with his students.
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| Jenais Bohanan | Jan 24, 2004 | little rock | money |
| How much do you all generl pay. | |||
