Jan. 20, 2021 -- The district is excited to announce that it has been awarded two additional 21st Century Grants by the State of Ohio. This brings the total of these federally-funded, state-awarded grants to five: Oxford HUB and Boulevard Blast have just opened up to students while Noble STREAM, Rox Connects and New Heights have all been operating for the past few years.
The four pillars of 21st Century Grants, which are designed to provide after-school enrichment opportunities to students, are math, english, youth development and family engagement. The district has now been awarded $850,000 to use over five years for these efforts. Sue Pardee writes the grant applications and Meghan McMahon manages them in collaboration with building principals and grant-funded on-site coordinators.
When school returns to in-person learning, these after-school programs will run from 3:30 to 5:30 each day, and will include a snack, homework help, fun learning activities, occasional field trips, dinner and transportation home, all funded by the grant. Oxford HUB coordinator Erin Hill has plans for cooking classes, filming movies, and designing and sewing clothes for a fashion show. “Right now, I have only one girl enrolled, but these are not things that are just for girls,” said Ms. Hill, who has a background in the fashion industry and as a documentary filmmaker.
With school currently remote, Oxford HUB runs online for 90 minutes Monday through Thursday. “It’s hard to recruit kids to spend more time online,” admits Ms. Hill. “But we have lots of families who want to join once we’re back in-person.”
In the meantime, she’s trying to design a program that focuses on social-emotional well-being and providing kids a fun gathering space while they’re isolated from friends and extended family. Each week will be organized around a theme to guide activities. Ms. Hill hopes games and projects with opportunities for what she calls “sneaky learning.”
The first week’s theme was animals and students all received bags delivered to their homes with Oxford Hub t-shirts and face masks, animal puzzles to complete with their families, animal pens and any items needed to complete that week’s virtual activities. Each student made a nest out of natural materials they could find outside like sticks, twigs, leaves and mud. At the end of the week, they tested the strength of their nests using marbles as eggs.
Although they’re only seeing each other’s faces through the computer screen, the Oxford students are excited to meet kids from other classes and grades and to have an opportunity to engage and learn in a laid-back, low risk environment. The HUB is open to children in kindergarten through 5th grade so activities have to be broad enough to meet many different abilities and interest levels. Ms. Hill currently only has one 5th grader so she plans to use him as an assistant, giving him more responsibility and making sure he doesn’t get bored. “He can be a great leader,” she said.
Ms. Hill’s been in touch with the coordinators of 21st Century Grant programs at the other district elementaries and hopes to set up a pen pal program between students who can hopefully meet in-person at an outdoor event in the spring.
In the meantime, Ms. Hill is enjoying the positive feedback from her students, especially Autumn who shared a picture of herself with the message “I love HUB.”