Programs help improve South End schools
Powerful Schools, Partners for Successful Schools provide much-needed support

Editor’s note: This piece is the first installment of a monthly column, called Empowering Schools, which will appear throughout the school year on the first Wednesday of the month.

By Jennifer Gaer and
Chanin Kelly

The days are getting shorter, the nights are cooler, and fall is approaching quickly. For most children this means that school is right around the corner. This year, students at eight South End schools will experience the work of two organizations making a positive difference in the lives of the students and their families.

Powerful Schools and Partners for Successful Schools are nonprofit coalitions made up of teachers, principals, parents and community members serving eight Seattle public elementary schools. Their goal is to help each student reach his or her fullest potential by bringing families, schools and the Southeast Seattle community together in working partnerships that build and share resources.

Sound impressive? In order to fully appreciate these organizations, let us tell you exactly what that means.

Powerful Schools, founded in 1991, includes the Hawthorne, John Muir, ORCA @ Columbia and Whitworth elementary schools, as well as the Mt. Baker Community Club and Columbia City Revitalization Committee. Over the years, Powerful Schools has developed a number of award-winning enrichment programs, which not only address academic achievement but include the “extras” that are often left out in today’s standards-based education environment.

The organization received the prestigious Washington State Golden Apple award for excellence in education and has been featured on the nationally syndicated Osgood Files as an exemplary model for community education.

Among Powerful Schools’ many programs is Powerful Buddies, which matches a caring adult or teen with an elementary student who needs a positive role model on a consistent basis. The buddies may spend time going over schoolwork or playing on the playground. Buddies agree to a one-year commitment, but many relationships last even beyond elementary school.
Powerful Readers provides one-to-one tutoring every day to those students who tested in the lowest quartile for reading in the first grade. Research shows that this program has a significant impact on improving those students’ reading skills.

Powerful Arts integrates art into the schools through working artists who bring their skills and expertise to the students. In recent years the artists have included ballet dancers, a puppeteer and classical musicians.

Powerful Writers employs professional writers in the classroom to assist in the writing process and to coach teachers to improve their teaching of writing.

Community Schools offers affordable and high quality after-school and evening classes to children, teens, adults and families. Classes cover a wide range of topics from computer skills to kung fu.

Reading and writing test scores in the public elementary schools have shown improvement during the 11 years of Powerful Schools’ involvement.

Partners for Successful Schools (PFSS), founded in 1998, includes the Emerson, Graham Hill, Van Asselt and Wing Luke elementary schools, as well as Emerald City Outreach Ministries, Rainier Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Unity in the Community and Holly Park Community Council.

In addition to expanding learning opportunities for all students, the goals of PFSS include increasing parent and community involvement, while showcasing the numerous positive events and programs that take place regularly at the Southeast Seattle schools and in their neighborhoods. They have begun this process by hiring a staff to dedicate themselves fully to creating nurturing and educational opportunities for both the students and their families.

Each year, the Partners Community Learning Centers course offerings and enrollment have increased. They’ve expanded their academic, music and art programs under the leadership of Tiny Tots, Vista and Americorps staff as well. Kids can now sing, learn to play chess, receive tutoring in all their subject areas and showcase their talents at an annual end-of-the-year talent extravaganza at the Rainier Beach Performing Arts Center. These are just a few of the things that PFSS has made possible for kids.

PFSS has hosted more than six parent-needs assessments where they have spoken directly with parents through translators to find out what their expectations of Seattle Public Schools are and how best their needs can be met.

Parents have offered their services as volunteers and will be given the opportunity to become more closely involved in the process of educating their children through more than academic study — they have offered themselves as parents, friends and experts in life experience.

Parent participation to any degree is of value and is accepted as such with open arms.

Both Powerful Schools and Partners for Successful Schools believe that schools are community “hubs” of activity where all members, not just students, but seniors, families, teens can come together to learn in a dynamic, accessible and affordable environment.

So, again, what does this all mean? Because you live in the area, you are a member of the community of Powerful Schools or Partners for Successful Schools. You can get involved!
Check out the courses being offered through Community Schools, and sign up to improve your computer skills. Find a gymnastics class for your preschool child. Or, commit the time to be a mentor, tutor or Powerful Buddy.

For information on Powerful Schools, contact Rebecca Sadinsky at 722-5543, ext. 102, or look at us on-line at www.powerfulschools.org.

For information on Partners for Successful Schools, contact Dorina Calderon-McHenry at 252-7139 or Chanin Kelly at 252-7549.

Jennifer Gaer and Chanin Kelly work with Powerful Schools and Partners for Successful Schools. Watch this Empowering Schools column throughout the year for more information on Powerful Schools and Partners for Successful Schools. Each month we’ll give you information about one of the schools and programs being offered, and you’ll be able to see how children are transformed by the efforts of Powerful Schools and Partners for Successful Schools.