Building Community
Charter-school students work to help neighborhood
By Bobbi Mlynar
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Students at the Turning Point Learning Center, Emporia’s K-8 charter school, got hands-on experience planning and organizing an event aimed at establishing a Neighborhood Watch chapter in the area surrounding their building. To do that, they brought the neighborhood together Monday night at the old Kansas Avenue School at Third Avenue and Market Street for a chili feed and carnival.
“It’s the first step in the project of community-building,” said Ginger Lewman, coordinator of the on-site division of the school. The Emporia school district contracts with Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas to operate Turning Point, which also includes a division for online students.
Lewman said that her on-site students had become aware of increasing problems with vandalism in the area. Because the center uses a project-based curriculum, combating the vandalism seemed an appropriate cause to undertake.
“Teachers ask a driving question,” Lewman explained. “How do we keep ourselves safe? ... The students said, ‘You know, we probably need to get the community involved.’ This is just the beginning step in bringing in the community.”
Planning for the event began in mid-September. The students decided that a chili cook-off would be a good way to attract a crowd and introduce them to the idea of neighborhood safety. They distributed information to area residents to promote the event, decorated tables, worked in the kitchen, served food, cleared tables and ran the evening’s events with little assistance from adults.
They also offered a carnival, haunted house and costume contest to entertain the children. They brought in Emporia Police Officer Todd Ayer to speak briefly about ways the youngsters and adults could keep themselves and their neighbors safer.
“If you see somebody in the neighborhood, call us,” Ayer said. “Watch out for your neighbors. You know better than we do what your neighbors’ habits are. ... It’s easier to stop (criminal activity) before it gets started.”
In addition to the experience of organizing details and making certain each aspect of the planning was completed, the project brought the students auxiliary benefits in social interaction. Lewman said the gathering was an opportunity for them to learn social skills, like introducing themselves to others, and initiating conversation.
The students are required to plan, organize, and execute the project themselves, with minimal overt guidance from the teacher.
“(Ms.) Lewman kind of asked us questions and guided us along, but we did all the work,” said Sean Davis, an eighth-grade student. “It was kind of hard.”
Police Chief Mike Heffron, school board member Jeff Larson, Assistant Superintendent George Abel and the center’s Deb Haneke served as judges for the chili, dessert and costume contests. They tasted the nine chili entries and awarded first place to Jennifer and Shawn Ratzlaff. A Turning Point student, Brooke Gutierrez, received first place in the dessert contest.
Winners in the costume contest were Sidney Williams, dressed as a witch, and Trystan Pringle, dressed as Count Dracula.