Signal Mountain’s SMX programs bridge the after-school gap

Written by Maggie Behringer

Photo credit:  Betsy Groves

A kid-centric structure of after-school enrichment activities supplements the International Baccalaureate program at the Signal Mountain Middle and High School. Photo credit: Betsy Groves

Every school day, most Hamilton County students walk out of the front doors at 2:15 p.m.   Whether they go home or wait for sports practices to start the reality is the same and a student’s day ends before their parent’s.   For middle school students this often translates into many hours home alone, often parked in front of the television.

Signal Mountain Extras, SMX, at Signal Mountain Middle and High School has introduced a solution: an after school program that reinforces what happens in the classroom while providing the fun kids want after a full school day and a bit of the independence for which middle schoolers are always pushing.

“We’ve had parents tell us ‘This is a God-send’,” said Mike Taylor, Executive Director of the Mountain Education Foundation (MEF), the non-profit organization behind SMX.  He continued, sharing compliments parents have heaped on the program.  Families have been thankful for the additional family time because homework is finished and awed that children want to continue even when their family work schedule means they don’t have to.

So what’s all the fuss about?

Part of the buzz stems from SMX’s kid-centric structure. Each day, students pour into the Media Center to check in and either stay to complete their homework or head to the Math Lab or tutoring.  After a little over an hour, everyone meets in the cafeteria for a 30-minute snack and groups are dismissed to one of the activities offered that day.

With new daily lineups, the activities were planned as a transition to SMX from elementary school daycare and give students an arena to create a club out of the newly discovered activities.  Ranging from outdoor, arts and technology, the activities include yoga, dance, mixed media art, open gym basketball, web design, mad science, bottle rockets, mountain biking, garage band, and drama, regularly supplemented by staff brainstorming

“SMX is the opportunity to inspire kids to seek out new experiences and hopefully foster a passion for something that might have seemed out of their reach beforehand,” said SMX counselor Brittney Brown.  An exciting grant-funded partnership with TVA for a robotics class is slated for the spring and SMX is partnering now with nursing students from Chattanooga State for an individualized stress, nutrition, and exercise assessment and education program.

SMX Director Stephanie Schefano credits much of the program’s buzz worthy formula to its staff.  Schefano owned a childcare business, is a SMMHS parent and was instrumental in MEF’s 2009 summer camp and in the planning process for this year’s program. She explains that the staff enriches the program not only with a commitment to children, but also a wide range of expertise that they share while leading daily activities.

“Even simply playing cards with [the students] in between activities has been a huge hit,” Schefano said. “Betsy (Groves) and Brittney (Brown) have big hearts and great people skills and that is so important when you are dealing with children.”

The need for an interactive after school program has been an ongoing conversation for two years. MEF, formed in 1991 with the focused purpose of fostering educational quality on Signal Mountain, designed SMX to fill several boxes on everyone’s wish list.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum provides academic support for its students and while tutoring programs were already in place they didn’t fill the time gap between adult and school days

Taylor did his homework, visiting other non-profit education organizations in California and Ohio to gather information on how to bridge that gap and match curriculum and family requirements. After a trial run with MEF’s summer camp, SMX opened the first day of school on August 16 and has grown at a steady 10 percent increase every week.

“Not only is it a service for our families, it’s an excellent opportunity for our students,” said SMMHS principal Dr. Tom McCullough and Taylor expressed his hope that “SMX is the start of something wonderful in other places, as well.”

Taylor and his SMX team have kept in mind the dialogue he established with the programs in California and Ohio.  That vital sharing of know-how in developing partnerships with local business and educational institutions, extending the classroom experience, and identifying community needs is something Taylor hopes to pass on to the next school looking for its own SMX.

They marked that as a priority in working with the Hamilton County Department of Education and Taylor points to grassroots power and parental momentum as the cornerstones of MEF’s 19-year history. SMX is a reality because of community efforts and will likely grow into a full day summer camp and a staple of students’ middle school experience.

“The exciting thing is the next 19 years,” Taylor said.