The Club Is The Hub

The 6‑year-olds were singing, older students were on their phones and fifth-graders were tossing a mini basketball. Amid all that, Da’quay Jeffries was able to concentrate —better than at home.

It was the second week of the Boys & Girls Club of New Haven (BGCNH) learning hub, one of several being hosted by churches and other community organizations while New Haven schools hold classes fully online to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

“Here, there’s extra help if I don’t understand something,” Da’quay said at the Club Tuesday.

Around 34 students have signed up so far, although not every student shows up everyday. The hub is still taking registrants at $300 each, plus a $20 club membership fee. The Boys & Girls Club is promising a ten-week program, with the hope that fundraising will help them extend the program past November.

Da’quay (pictured above) attends school at Roberto Clemente Leadership Academy, around the corner from the Hill-based Boys & Girls Club.

His mother, Adrienne Morris, came to the club first as a volunteer and later decided to enroll Da’quay in the afterschool and summer programs there. She liked the homework help at BGCNH and the Black history and culture-focused activities. Morris said that she never worried about her son getting into trouble with more time on his hands, but she does want him to do something besides play his PS4.

Now the learning hub offers the family an extension of what works in a normal school year.

Da’quay recounted that his favorite day of school so far happened last Wednesday, the first day of the Boys & Girls learning hub. He finished all of his work early and answered the most questions in his classes.

Morris (pictured above) does not need to spend all day seated next to Da’quay while he finishes his work. She gets to see other Boys & Girls Club children with whom she has deep bonds as well. She paused during an interview Tuesday to get a new face mask for a 10-year-old who always asks to see her at the club.

“I missed the kids,” Morris said. ​“I have two other kids and a granddaughter, but these are my kids outside of home.”

A few of the students in Da’quay’s remote classroom said that they had finished their classes for the day. One student sitting next to Da’quay played a video game, while the student on his other side scrolled on his phone. BGCNH Interim Executive Director Barbara Chesler encouraged these students to switch to an academic activity until all of the students’ school days were over.

Other students focused on the squares of their classmates and teachers speaking in their virtual classroom.

The wildly different schedules that students have even within the same school is something other learning hubs are grappling with. Daisy Hull (pictured), a longtime staffer at the Boys & Girls Club, is printing out schedules and pinning them up to keep track of who is supposed to be studying when.

Hull said that the majority of the students in her classroom are independent workers. She focuses on keeping all the laptops charged and rearranging students when one or another needs an outlet.

Chesler (pictured above) said she is worried that the $300 fee may discourage families who need to use the learning hub. She said she needs more funds to be able to waive the fees, though.

“If you calculate the daily rate, it’s pennies,” Chesler said.

The hub currently has four full-time staff members; Chesler hopes to add volunteers to that roster. She would like enough volunteers to sit with students, watch the same lessons and then walk students through their independent work.

Dividers break the club’s largest room into two classrooms, to reduce the number of possible distractions for the students.

Tyriq Harris establishes order on the other side of the divider from Hull. On Tuesday afternoon, this meant playing a game with a student on break.

Other students bobbed around the game. They reported varying levels of enthusiasm about remote school. One, a sixth grader at Edgewood, gave a full rundown of his day. This included talking about emotions in his morning meeting, reading about Rosa Parks and eating a veggie burger for lunch. (No way! I didn’t taste any vegetables, another said.)

Another student, a fifth grader at John S. Martinez, said that he likes remote school better because he can eat whatever he wants for lunch — peanut butter or even rice and beans.

“You can chill in your bed, and you don’t have to show your face. But you shouldn’t be on your phone, because you should listen like you would in regular school,” the sixth grader said.

A fourth grader hailed from a school in Shelton, despite living with a foster family in New Haven. She goes to school in-person two days a week and likes those days better, because she gets to see her friends.

The Boys & Girls Club is planning a major fundraising drive for mid-October, in the hope of extending the program beyond ten weeks. Salsa-dancing brewer Alisa Bowens-Mercado will emcee speakers and shows from the club students. The donation website is live here.