In this episode, we focus on the Importance of Before and After School Programs with guest, Quisha Breiling, Director of Community Education. Quisha has worked in community education for 16 years helping serve families when students are out of school, and is an advocate for afterschool programs. She serves as the current president of the Arizona Community Education Association and is on the planning committee for the Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence.
In this episode, we focus on the Importance of Before and After School Programs with guest, Quisha Breiling, Director of Community Education. Quisha has worked in community education for 16 years helping serve families when students are out of school, and is an advocate for afterschool programs. She serves as the current president of the Arizona Community Education Association and is on the planning committee for the Arizona Center for Afterschool Excellence.
Nicole Rodriguez: Welcome to Parenting Future Focused Kids. Today we are going to discuss the benefits of before and after school programs and how these programs help students succeed academically, socially and emotionally. Calling in to our podcast today is Quisha Breiling, Madison's Director for Community Education. Quisha has worked in community education for 16 years, helping serve our families when students are out of school. She received her bachelor's in business from ASU and her master's in business administration from GCU. As an advocate for afterschool programs, she also serves as the current president of the Arizona Community Education Association and is on the planning committee for the Arizona Center for After-School Excellence. As a full time working mother, she has experienced firsthand the benefits of before and after school programing for her three children. Thank you so much for being here today. We're so excited to have you on our podcast, and we're excited to talk about before and after school programing.
Quisha Breiling: Thanks for having me.
NR: Yeah. So I mean, just right off the bat: why are before and after school programs important for students and for families?
QB: They are such an important part of the education system. Obviously, they allow families to work, um, for the full day. A lot of us have work and we need our kids to have someplace safe to go after school. So that just provides that safe place to extend the school day. But in addition to that, there is so much research out there talking about the improvements in social, emotional and academic growth for students that participate in afterschool programs. There's things that that show that students have lower dropout rates in high school, even when they participate in afterschool programs as early as elementary school. There's a reduction in risky behaviors because they have stronger relationships with more trusted adults. And it gives them an opportunity to build and explore opportunities with their extracurricular interests. So above and beyond the regular school day helps really give them that education and things that's you know more than reading and math.
NR: Right? Absolutely. It builds those connections. And like you said, it gives them that safe place to go after school where they can continue learning and building those relationships.
QB: Yeah.
NR: So, you know, you touched on like the benefits of your child attending before and after school, specifically with like social emotional growth and building those connections and academic success. I think that's important. We don't often think about before and after school programs as building on the school day. Maybe there's a misconception with that. So what types of before and after school programs offer those those benefits that we had just talked about? Is it all before and after school programs or, what do we specifically offer here at Madison?
QB: I think everything that a child can participate in after school offers those benefits. So you have the school based programs and then you have outside activities. So anything from sports activities to afterschool clubs such as Student Council, Yearbook, National Junior Honor Society, those type of things, fine arts activities. We have a lot of dance and choir and drama and arts and we also offer some specialty classes, chess, additional art classes, yoga, cooking classes, those kinds of things. And above and beyond all of that here at Madison specifically, we have our Madison Adventure Club, which is after school at all of our campuses, and we do a little bit of everything, which is what makes MAC really unique is that you don't have to have everything invested in a specific topic, but we sprinkle a little bit of it in throughout our MAC day after school.
NR: Mm hmm. Absolutely. So if a family is, you know, looking around for something for their child to do after school, what attributes should families look for when choosing a before and after school program? So that they're, you know, expanding on their their knowledge and they're gaining that social emotional growth and even academic growth?
QB: Sure. So the first thing we usually talk about when we look at programs for students is we usually start with safety. So you want to make sure that they have quality staff. We operate on a lot of ratios. So what is that adult to student ratio look like? And obviously, that depends on what type of program you're running. We operate typically around one to 15 for our after school program. If the program is licensed sometimes by the state of Arizona After-School Programs, licensed through the Department of Health Services, the Child Care Division, if they're more recreational activities like sports and those kinds of things, you definitely want to make sure that it's somebody that has that training in building students. So it's more than just do they know how to play basketball? It's do they know how to run a team? Do we know how to connect with kids? Do we know how to help build them up when something goes wrong because something will go wrong. And how do we help them, you know, become resilient and build back from those things? From a family perspective, obviously, you want to look at the hours that it's available and the cost and making sure that that's something that works for your family. But most importantly, really making sure that it's something that your student is interested in. And the engagement is going to be so much easier and your child is going to get so much more out of an after school program if it's something that they feel warm and they feel welcome into that community and it's something that they're interested in and they can help build that passion.
NR: Absolutely. Warm and welcome. And that's something I think about every time, I don't know, I see our students in the in the after school program here, and it's just it's definitely a warm and welcoming environment and everyone seems to be having a great time. So you talked about how we have the Madison Adventure Club here or MAC and describe what a typical day would be like if, you know, in the before school program or afterschool program, what types of activities are offered?
QB: Sure. So after school, specifically, since that's the bulk of our day, we have a set up location for all of our students to meet after school, which all of our teachers on our campuses know. You know, hey, second grade meets under the Ramada is our third grade meets in the cafeteria. So it is really an adult to adult handoff, especially for those younger kiddos where we meet up after school. We take a few minutes to get everybody checked in to make sure that the students that are supposed to be there that day arrive. And then we have a rotation schedule to where each of our groups rotate through a set number of activities during the day. And those all include some type of academic time, again, depending on the grade, depends on what homework really looks like sometimes for our younger grades, if they have, um, if they're practicing sight words, maybe we'll do a Jeopardy game as a whole group, or it's kids sitting on a carpet and we practice our sight words all together as a group. And sometimes with the older kiddos, it's a little more, you know, student led with their own homework assignments depending on where their classes are. We got to have our snack. Kids have a long day. And sometimes that is the highlight of their, Hey, we're just going to sit down and we're going to, you know, fill our tummies with a little bit of energy to help get us through the day. We always have some unstructured playtime. So we have, especially when the weather permits outside time on the playground, just letting them burn off some steam. And then we have structured activities which vary every day, which is a nice part of MAC where we talked about having those different activities sprinkled in so that we get the attention of everybody. So those could include arts and crafts. They could include P.E. games. We have STEM activities. One of our middle schools had an airplane contest where they all built paper airplanes and got to see who had the whose airplane was able to fly the furthest. And really those hands-on activities, um, but one of the other benefits of MAC is that it's on campus.So there are kids that they already know, there are kids they already see, they're on a campus they're already familiar with, which just helps ease some of that anxiety for some of these kiddos that maybe have a really long day at school.
NR: Right? Absolutely. And everything you said, I was just thinking of the word balance. There's a lot of balance there with, you know, as far as the set academic time obviously snack time, which I think is very important as well, and the unstructured and structured sorts of activities that are available. And I know that we offer, so that's kind of what, you know, students experience after school, before school. But we also offer camp during school breaks and what types of activities and programs do students get to participate in if they're, you know, maybe not not in the before and after school program, can they participate in these summer camps or break camp so tell us a little bit about that.
QB: Sure. So we typically offer a summer camp, our Madison Summer Club over the summer and most of June and July and we have summer camp or we have the holiday camps for fall, winter and spring break, assuming that we had staff to work those. And we are open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and students can pick and choose more of the days or over the summer the weeks they want to register for. So it's not an all or nothing for parents. Maybe I just want one day during winter break for my kids to get out of the house and see something different on that. So we usually collapse down and only have one or two locations. So students from across the district go to one school. This just helps us facilitate more activities and we have a lot of those same things that we talk about during MAC. So the games that P.E. games on the STEM activities, we usually do a little more intense activities since we have the kiddos a little longer. We also typically have field trips once we can get back on busses and give the students opportunities to see things that they normally wouldn't see and that we can have those recreations, we've done things down at the Children's Museum, we've gone to the zoo, we've done rock climbing, just really opportunities for the kiddos to get out and see all the cool things that we have here in the Phoenix area. And then additionally over the summer, some of the things that we've recently added is we've hired some of the school social workers and counselors that we've been fortunate to hire during the school year, and they've come in and facilitated some fun activities to build the kids' social skills over the summer, and then they can go back to their home campuses when school starts again in August. And then they can become leaders on their campuses and say, Hey, this was a technique that I learned over the summer. This might come in helpful in this situation. And we've really seen them rise as leaders on their home campuses with some of the skills that they've learned through our summer camps.
NR: Right. That's awesome. And you mentioned that, you know, parents, if they want to choose just one day over winter break, do the students have to participate in MAC throughout the year in order to participate in the summer program or winter program?
QB: They don't have to. So we do offer priority to the students that are enrolled in our MAC program. But if we have a space available after that and then it is open to all families.
NR: That's great. So I know that you're looking to hire employees for the before and after school program. And, you know, what would a typical day look like? Why would someone want to, you know, come work for MAC.
QB: So one of the benefits that we have here at Madison specifically is that we really are a family in afterschool. So although we're spread across eight campuses, we have a really tight knit community education team. Our average site coordinator, which is the person on the site that really does a lot of the planning of the activities and facilitates the after school program. Our average employee has been here between 13 and 15 years, and they really know our families, they know our program and they really have a passion for what we do after school. And a lot of, you know, we're hearing a lot around now about how, you know, there's a teacher shortage and the stresses that that are overwhelming teachers at the moment and our staff are enjoying coming in after school. And maybe it's not I don't want to be a teacher. Maybe I, I don't have the certification to be a teacher. But I love students and I love interacting with them. It gives us a chance to do that in a, in a less restricted sense where we can, we can just sit back and have fun with the kids it's really fun to sit and share the passions. Like I mentioned, we had so many different activities after school. If you love doing puzzles come in and share that with the kids. If you love playing basketball, come in and share that with the kids. If you love, you know, we had somebody come in and show our kids how to do crocheting because that's something they love to do and they were all able to make little animals for people. So come in and be yourself um and share yourself with your kids and just watch how you can inspire something that they can be passionate about and help build our future in that less academic sense. But they're still kiddos and they need adults to pour into them. And it's a nice place for us to be able to do that.
NR: Yeah, I love that inspiring additional passions in our students after school. So if someone is interested, if someone is inspired by this what are some of the benefits of employment? I know that there's some flexible shifts and things like that. So what are some of those benefits?
QB: Yeah, so we operate after school hours. So depending on our campus here in Madison that the afternoon shift would start anywhere between 2:00 and 3:00, depending on what time our school gets out. We do have some early release days where that would be a little earlier and then we typically work until 6:00. We do have some flexibility as far as, you know, if somebody is in school and they need to leave a little early. And obviously we like consistency with the kiddos and we have different flexibility in regards to, you know, I like working with the younger kiddos. I like working with the middle school kiddos. So all of those options, we are hiring for all of our campuses. We have a lot of waitlists for students that see the benefit of after school care. We just don't have the staff to currently open up any more options because of those ratios that I mentioned earlier. And so we do have some employment, some hiring stipends at the moment. If you want to call our community ed office at 602-664-7956 we can walk you through some of that information. But really, we're looking for people that want to invest in kiddos. That love hanging out with kiddos, being a positive influence and a positive role model. And really just making sure they have a safe place and having somebody that cares about them and sees how we can help build them up after school.
NR: Absolutely. And if someone was looking to apply today, would the best place be to go to our website or how does that process look?
QB: Yeah, so our jobs are posted on the Madison website, which is Madisonaz.org. Our club leader position are the ones that work in that before and after school setting. If you want to apply there, then we'll reach out to you and find out a little more information in regards to your interests and your age group and your schedule and then can refer you to the proper campus at that time.
NR: Awesome. So anything else you like to add?
QB: Just the real benefits. I know we talked a little bit at the beginning in regards to that social, emotional and academic success. And, you know, there's just whether it's the Madison Adventure Club or our program here at MAC you know, getting your students in some kind of after school program I feel like, especially with the last couple of years, obviously there have been some concerns with with the pandemic and making sure that our kids are safe. But we're seeing a lot of that seclusion happening with kiddos where they're just they're isolated and, you know, they're having a hard time rebuilding those social skills, especially for those kiddos that are trying to come back into school and they're struggling with the academic component of what school is. This is often a bridge to help them get back to that better place where you can help build some of those uncomfortable social skills where you're not worried about grades, you're not worried about tests, you're not worried about, you know, those kinds of things that are typically tied to school but you can come in and you can make some friends and our staff go through a lot of training during the school year to teach kiddos how to build those relationships. And what we're seeing is once they have those strong social skills, that that's an easier transition back into school so that they can walk away from some of those social anxieties and can really jump in and have their focus be on their academics and build those relationships throughout the whole day. So whether it's it's MAC whether it's sports, whether it's student council, whether it's dance class, just really find some way for your student to get involved with other students kind of outside of that academic setting.
NR: Right. And like you were saying, the social emotional piece in the academic portion of the day go hand in hand. And I think that MAC is is a place where students can, you know, reintegrate into into social settings and gain that social emotional support. And you mentioned earlier about having, you know, counselors and social workers available as well right? That was that was something that you went into. And I think that's huge for our students, especially after school.
QB: Yeah, and that's one of the benefits too of us being a part of the district is I work closely with with all of the administrators to find ways to to help tie us together. So all of our schools here in Madison have a signature program. Our staff on those sites know about those signature programs. And we know that these students that at Rose Lane and No. 1 are really focused on their fine arts. And how can we help build those in after school and we deal with IB and Spanish and all of those things. So having that on campus, we get to work with the social workers, we get to work with the counselors, we get to work with the teachers that really bring those signature programs to life. And then we get to have fun with them.
NR: That's the best part, right?
QB: Yeah, absolutely. We have a lot of fun in what we do.
NR: That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here today. We really appreciate it. And again, that's, you know, Madisonaz.org/jobs, if anyone is interested in joining or before and after school programs. But we really appreciate you just taking the time to talk about the benefits of students participating in before and after school. So thank you.
QB: Thank you for having me.
NR: Thank you for listening to Parenting Future Focused Kids. To listen to our latest episode, visit our website at Madisonaz.org/Podcast or search Madison School District on Spotify.