The Wallkill Central School District (CSD) will host its second session of the Wallkill Elementary K-6 After School Program starting on February 28 and ending May 26, 2022. The Wallkill Board of Education (BOE) received an update on the program’s first session during their regular meeting on Wednesday, January 19.

This after school program assists Wallkill students in the Leptondale, Plattekill and Ostrander Elementary Schools.

Leptondale Principal Scott Brown said the first session of the after school program began on October 4, 2021 and concluded on January 20, 2022.

At Leptondale, 16 teachers from the school taught their respective grades during the first session. At Plattekill, there were nine teachers and at Ostrander, there were 17. Some teachers at Ostrander also assisted in other instructional classes as well. 42 teachers in total from these three schools assisted in this initiative.

Wallkill Superintendent Kevin Castle was very proud and pleased to see the number of educators involved in the educational assistance for the students.

“The amount of folks [Wallkill teachers] who are dedicating their time to our students is very impressive,” Castle said.

“Last year and the challenges that we faced with the pandemic, we knew coming into this year, we were going to have to provide students with significant interventions such as after school programming,” Castle said. “We [the district and teachers] have more work to do.”

For academic institutions during the course of the last two years, many institutions transitioned online, graduated their students virtual and have operated using hybrid learning models.

“We knew that there were going to be some gaps with regards to academics,” Brown said.

According to Plattekill Principal Monica Hasbrouck, prior to the pandemic, the after school program that was offered did not have sessions that would last for long periods of time such as this program.

Heading into the 2021-2022 school year, this program needed to be extended, Hasbrouck said.

“Our students really want to do well and we don’t want them to struggle,” Hasbrouck said.

Continuing along in the presentation, the program utilized various educational programs and services such as Foundations - Wilson Language Basics, Pioneer Valley Books, and Envision Math for their lessons. Teachers would also provide instruction based on the students’ needs.

The list of goals for the program were also presented to the board. The goals started with providing kindergarten through third grade students language skills needed for everyday life, reading and writing. The second goal was to provide fourth through sixth grade students reading and writing strategies to excel in their studies. Thirdly, the program is here to increase and provide mathematical skills and proficiency from kindergarten through sixth grade.