feature story / 31 Enter the Saturday Academy, which started two years ago during the 2016- 17 school year. Students who have a D or F in any two of the core subjects of English, math, science or social stud- ies at the end of the first quarter are eligible. (The South Orange Middle School does not receive any Title I funds and doesn’t operate a Saturday program.) This past school year, 85 students at MMS were invited to attend classes on Saturday – and a whopping 65 kids showed up. Classes run from 9 a.m. to noon, when the pizza arrives. “Middle schoolers love nothing more than food and once they have the idea that they can go on a trip, they were hooked,” says MMS guid- ance counselor Kelli Dios, who helps run the weekend program. But the Saturday Academy is more than just tutoring. It’s three hours of instruction with middle school teach- ers, as well as an opportunity to meet one-on-one with a social worker and Dios, who helps the students with goal setting, planning their week – even or- ganizing their lockers. “It really is a whole-child model and not just test prep,” Gronau says. Dios agrees. “As a guidance counselor at Maple- wood Middle, I have a caseload of 400 students and the kids who need the most attention are the kids at Saturday Academy,” she says. “This gives us time to work one-on-one with them.” According to Gronau, it’s working. “We’ve had a reduction in failures for the year and a reduction in the num- ber of students who needed to repeat a grade,” she says. This past year, for example, none of the MMS students needed to repeat a grade. Last year, five students were held back. There has also been a reduc- tion in the number of Ds and Fs, adds Gronau. “What I like about it is that every teacher is involved, even if they are not a Saturday Academy teacher,” she says. “Each week they are getting some communication on who is going (to Saturday classes) and they can talk to their colleagues and have some follow- up and meetings to discuss specific ways to help the child.” The Academy is also an example of a successful community-wide effort. Pizza, water and snacks are provided by Rent Party, a live music series that raises money to help fight hunger in Maplewood and South Orange. Rent Party co-founder Chris Dickson says the group partnered with Mary Vayas at Village Trattoria to supply pizzas for the kids participating in the program. The excursions, called Saturday Academy Adventures, are paid for through a $1,050 grant from Achieve Foundation, a private organization that funds teacher grants at all schools in the South Orange and Maplewood One of the reasons the Saturday Acad- emy is so successful is that in exchange for spending their Saturday mornings at school, the students are treated to a pizza lunch. “There are kids com- ing for the pizza and that’s fine with us,” MMS Principal Dara Gronau says. “It’s all about leveling the playing field and getting these students more time and attention on their core academic classes.” A typical Saturday at the Saturday Academy Pediatric Therapy Center Helping children reach their maximum potential, one step at a time. Speech Therapy Occupational Therapy Feeding Therapy Social Groups Creative Speech Solutions, LLC Cynthia Marrapodi, M.S., CCC-SLP, Director License # 41YS00205300 (908) 598-0228 www.creativespeechsolutions.com 151 Summit Avenue Summit, NJ 07091 198 Bellevue Avenue Montclair NJ Our satellite location in Upper Montclair is upandrunning! Literary Instruction with Reading Specialist somadultschool.org 973.378.7620