Above & Beyond the Classroom used grant funding from the Idaho Out-of-School Network to open a new center in Tetonia Elementary School for the 2022-23 school year.
“As a resort community, our valley continues to grow and displace working families,” said Anna Wells, Executive Director of Above & Beyond the Classroom. “We aim to support those families by remaining an affordable childcare option, addressing food insecurity by providing weekly meals to families, and providing social emotional support for our students.”
Above & Beyond the Classroom was founded in 2017 when the local school district no longer had an afterschool program. It aims to provide academic, enrichment, and wellness to at-risk youth in Teton Valley through afterschool and summer camp programs.
Since its founding, Above & Beyond the Classroom has opened centers in Driggs, Victor, and Tetonia, which together serve 120 students after school and 105 students in summer. The program also has community partners for counseling and transportation services.
“The money had a large impact on our programs,” said Wells. “Last year, students who went to Tetonia Elementary were bussed to our Driggs center, which was a barrier for many families who couldn’t drive down to Driggs to pick up their child. We are currently the only after-school program option in the town of Tetonia. With the opening of the Tetonia center, we increased our enrollment by 12 percent.”
Above & Beyond the Classroom used various revenue streams including grants, donations, in-kind support, and, on a smaller scale, program fees to focus the grant funds from the Idaho Out-of-School Network to expand the program and admit more low-income students, said Wells.
Grants funds were used to hire staff. “ABC has grown quickly over the last few years, opening two new centers and increasing our enrollment by 150 percent,” said Wells. “This quick growth has put a strain on full-time staff as we currently only have one administrative position.”
In addition to hiring staff, grant funds from the Idaho Out-of-School Network also went towards providing teacher training in trauma-informed education, STEM instruction, and other webinars teaching best practices in after school and summer programs.
Funds went to increasing access to their programs by admitting more students into afterschool and summer camp programs and offsetting the costs for families. Above & Beyond the Classroom offers a sliding scale so that families pay as little as $2 a day for after school and $5 a day for summer.
According to Wells, parents have expressed gratitude in regular surveys. She’s proud to learn from surveys that Above & Beyond the Classroom helps single-parent families, households with two working parents, and families of students with disabilities.
As for what has been most valuable to the youth, Wells said “our students absolutely love our enhanced STEM program. We have Maker challenges each week and students are focused, engaged, thinking critically, and problem solving.”
Wells mentioned that in addition to providing grant funding, the Idaho Out-of-School Network also provided professional development and support through the Idaho Building Blocks for Out-of-School Time Quality. “I found that the building blocks exercises were very helpful for evaluating our program,” she said. “The framework was thorough and encouraged me to think about all facets of our organization – good and bad! It’s also a reminder that each program has strengths and areas for improvement, and sustainable growth is about addressing needs one at a time and at a pace that can be handled.”
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