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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2000

News Release

Safe School-Community Programs In Arizona Ranked Among the Best In the Nation, By the National Education Association

Washington, D.C. -- A pioneering, comprehensive after school program that radically altered one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Arizona will serve as a model for the nation when it is featured Thursday at 2 p.m. in a national satellite broadcast by the National Education Association.

Forging Community Alliances, the fourth in a nine-part video series produced by the NEA Safe Schools Now Network, highlights the critical importance of community involvement in creating a safe, nurturing climate for kids in and around their schools.

The partnership between the Mesa School District, United Way of Mesa, the DeWitt-Wallace Reader's Digest Foundation, Governor Jane Dee Hull's Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention office, parents, and neighbors living near the school serves as an excellent example. Together, they have produced an after school program to rival all others, and police say it exists two blocks away from some of the worst crime in the state.

"There is something significantly different with this particular after school program because it's a combination and a collaboration between our neighbors, our school, the school district, and other agencies," says Kerr Elementary School Principal Hector Benitez.

It all started seven years ago, when the Kerr school was being rebuilt to house students that had previously attended four different schools. With visionary leadership from school staff, grant proposals were developed that went to United Way of Mesa, the De-Witt Wallace Reader's Digest Foundation, and to the Governor's Office. Today these entities provide funding for what is called the Kerr KidsCan/North Center Early Intervention Program.

"There were lots of problems in the neighborhood," says Donna Delgado, a Kerr teacher and mother of two children in the school. "Vandalism, theft, gangs were standing to make a stronghold. It was just wreaking havoc."

Kerr KidsCan each week serves 350 children, who previously may not have had a supervised place to go after school. They can join the arts & crafts club or clubs for basketball, cheerleading, drama, homework, soccer, etc. The kids are then driven home by after-school bus drivers, without whom 80 percent or more of the students would not be able to participate in the program.

Frank Hunter is co-coordinator of Kerr KidsCan. He is also the school custodian.

"A lot of people think that if you're a bus driver, or a custodian, or a secretary that you don't have a part in the kids' education and that's not true," Hunter says on the NEA show. "Everyone works for the same cause."

In fact, because Educational Support Personnel tend to work with children in a non-threatening way, they may have a special role to play in reaching out to students, he noted.

"Today, there's big changes (in the neighborhood)," Delgado says. "Kids are not hanging around on the streets."

The program works, school administrators and community members explain, because everyone is involved -- the parents, students, faculty and neighbors living adjacent to the school.

"Something that we didn't expect is how the community has reached back to us... especially those folks who don't have children in our public schools," says Ann Rifleman, former president of the Mesa Education Association, who is featured on the video. Elderly community members, for example, now participate in the Intergenerational Club, through which adults share history and act as role models for the kids. The kids teach the elderly how to use technology. In addition, elderly neighbors now use Kerr facilities for their group meetings.

"This alliance is a terrifically important part of our overall program for keeping our students, teachers, schools, and community safe," Rifleman said. "Teachers can use all the community support we can get to protect our students."

The NEA Safe Schools Now Network was created in response to the fatal shootings at Columbine High School. The series aims to offer schools and communities the best research-based information on how to maintain or achieve school safety.

The series was announced by President Bill Clinton in June 1999 and premiered in January 2000 with an introduction by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley.

"This series makes an important contribution to school safety by presenting examples of innovative violence-prevention programs, experts on school safety, and the voices of the young people we're trying to protect," said Secretary Riley.

The first education project of its kind in the nation, the shows feature:

• original television programming produced by NEA,

• the donation of 1,000 free satellite television dishes and air time to school districts nationwide by EchoStar Communications Corporation, a private company based in Littleton, Colorado, near Columbine High School, and

• support with research, promotion, and distribution of the broadcasts to more than 6,000 schools through the U.S. Departments of Education, Justice and Health and Human Services, as well as Learning First Alliance, a coalition of the nation's leading 12 education organizations.

Through public television stations, all schools in Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina can receive the broadcasts, and thousands more in Los Angeles, Austin, Kalamazoo, and in Vermont.

The April 27^th episode also reviews a school/community after-school program that has radically changed what was considered by many to be among the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Arizona.

"Through the NEA Safe Schools Now Network, we hope to promote a culture in which our children never again hear gunshots ringing in their schools," said Bob Chase, president of the 2.5 million-member National Education Association.

The broadcasts are provided free by satellite. Details of past and future programs, as well as a discussion guide and a list of additional resources, and school district applications for a free satellite dish, are available on the web at www.safeschoolsnow.org. VHS copies of the shows are available for $15.00 each from the NEA Professional Library, 800-229-4200.

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support personnel, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.