What's New

Good news for partner school Classic City High School - PLC. The official ribbon cutting is set for October 3rd at 11:30.

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/092606/news_20060926050.shtml

Facility helps moms help themselves

By Merritt Melancon | juliana.melancon@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 12:20 AM on Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Jasmine Barnes, a senior at the Classic City Performance Learning Center, has worried for two months about whether she would be able to find a babysitter to care for her 1-year-old son, Jamarion, while she tried to finish high school.

So, when Classic City opened its long-planned, on-site Early Learning Center for the children of PLC students, Jamarion was one of the first three children enrolled.

"I had just been having to find friends and family who could watch him the very next morning, because I didn't know, and some of them didn't know what their schedules were going to be," Barnes said.

"This takes a lot of the uncertainty out of it. I know I'll be able to make it to class and have him taken care of. It's a lot less stressful."

The PLC Early Learning Center, which was slated to open at the beginning of this school year, is meant to help students who can't afford the cost of child care, but without it, might not finish high school.

The PLC is a 156-student high school that provides hands-on learning and a flexible schedule for students at risk of dropping out.

About one-third of the female students are mothers and in need of help with child care.

So far, only about 10 children are registered at the Early Learning Center, but ELC teacher Susan Lumpkin is expecting all 24 slots to fill up when a new semester starts next month.

The Early Learning Center is a collaborative effort between Athens Technical College, a state dropout prevention program called Communities in Schools and the Clarke County School District.

Communities in Schools provided funding to renovate the learning center's classrooms.

The Clarke County School District's EvenStart program is providing teachers for the children and parenting classes for PLC students. Athens Technical College is providing a GED instructor for those PLC students who opt to get a GED and will send early childhood education students to intern at the center.

Two new early childhood education classes at the PLC will use the ELC's classrooms as learning laboratories, and those classes will be mandatory for students with children at the center.

The collaboration is one of the first results of Partners for a Prosperous Athens, an area anti-poverty task force, said Tim Johnson, executive director of Communities in School in Athens.

"In terms of eradicating poverty long term, it's two-fold," Johnson said. "It's helping students stay in school by providing high-quality care for their children, so they can get through school and achieve their goals. But it is also getting the kids in the center ready for kindergarten, so they're prepared at the beginning and do better in school."

The EvenStart model used at the Early Learning Center incorporates parenting classes, early childhood learning, parental education and classes which teach parents how to help their children learn.

"It's more than daycare," said Mimi Middendorf, director of student services at the PLC.

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 092606