BY PEPPER FISHER
Port Angeles — The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula announced on Friday the opening of a new afterschool program that will make its home at Roosevelt Elementary, beginning with the new school year.
The expansion of their services will provide students with daily access to high-quality, affordable afterschool care, right where they learn.
Last year, Roosevelt kids who relied on the B&G Club for after-school services were dismissed 20 minutes early every day to allow time for an added bus route. With the new school-based location, those students can remain in class for the full day before transitioning seamlessly into their afterschool program.
The Boys and Girls Club’s Alyssa Dailey-Morse says everybody wins with this new location, including the teachers who get to keep all of their students until the end of the day. She described for us what the program will look like at the school.
“When they come from their classrooms to us, we are still providing the meals, just like we do at our main clubhouse. And then, after they eat their after-school meal, we are moving to the gym, the playground, and then we also have a portable out there where we’re doing all the same STEM, arts and leadership programs that we have here at our normal clubhouse, but just on a little smaller scale.”
The Club’s Janet Gray told KONP that by eliminating early dismissals and expanding access, the Roosevelt site directly addresses a barrier that disproportionately affected the Club’s highest-need students.
Members that attend the Roosevelt School Site can also use the Sequim or Port Angeles Clubhouses during school breaks.
(Photo courtesy of the Boys and Girls Club website)