West Rock Kids Reap
Two-Wheeled Rewards

Ricky Rodriguez didn’t want to, but he showed up to school every day for two weeks to take the Connecticut Mastery Tests. As a reward, he rode off into the summer with a brand new bicycle.

Ricky (at right in photo, with his dad, Carlos Baca) was one of 15 kids at the Katherine Brennan School who got free mountain bikes Tuesday as a reward for perfect attendance during the two-week CMT testing period. Forty other kids who walk to school from their West Rock housing projects got free bikes, too.

The giveaway at the Wilmot Road school marked the 21st year of a city-funded ​“Bikes for Kids” program. The city gave out 55 bikes, subsidized by the Devil’s Gear Bike Shop, and paid for by a grant from the state Education Department’s Youth Services Bureau. The program is meant to encourage kids to get away from the TV, out of the car, and exercise.

This year, Mayor John DeStefano linked the giveaway to the city’s nascent school change campaign, which will take root next year at Katherine Brennan and its sister school, Clarence Rogers. Brennan/Rogers is one of seven schools that were ​“graded” this year, and that are preparing for dramatic changes next year. 

Tuesday, the week after school let out, parents and kids returned to the school gymnasium to claim their gifts. DeStefano linked the prizes to the school reform drive’s theme of raising expectations in the classroom.

“These bikes are not being given away for free,” DeStefano told the crowd. ​“You work for something, you get something.”

Kids like Ricky, who showed up every day for two weeks during the CMT testing, entered a raffle to win the bikes.

Brennan/Rogers Principal Karen Lott said she used the raffle as a lure to get kids in grades 3 to 8 to come in and take the test, which took place in February and March. Students who miss a day of testing have to show up for a make-up test date on the third week. Most didn’t have to, Lott said — about 90 percent of students had perfect attendance during the first two weeks.

“It really helped us get back to our academic schedule after that testing period,” Lott said.

Ricky said he didn’t want to go to school on those days, but his dad made sure he did. Carlos Baca (at left in photo at the top of this story) said he drives his two kids from the Hill neighborhood to Brennan/Rogers every day.

“I keep telling him if he wants to get rewards every year, he’s got to keep it up each year,” Baca said. Ricky is going into the seventh grade; his sister Leslie will be in the fifth.

Baca said they’d take the bike to Lighthouse Point Park this summer. He said he lets the two kids ride, he said, and ​“I walk behind.”

Tyjon Watley will be riding around the city this summer, too. He got a bike not based on attendance, but because he lives in the nearby Westville Manor and walks to school each day. He has a grandfather who makes sure he stays on track, and offers incentives if he does.

In addition to the 15 students who won their bikes for school rewards, 40 other kids who walk to school from their West Rock housing projects, like Tyjon, also got free bikes on Tuesday. (All 55 bikes were covered by the $10,000 state grant.)

Tyjon (at right in photo) also worked hard to win some rewards for the summer.

Yul Watley (at left) said Tyjon, his grandson, had been slipping behind and had to repeat third grade. Before this school year, Watley laid out Grandpa’s Code of Conduct for his grandsons, whose dads are not around. The Code involves a list of rules: ​“Be courteous to authority. Don’t hang your pants low. Respect women. Do your homework.”

Watley and Tyjon’s mom worked hard to enforce the latter rule, he said. Sometimes, it meant yanking rights to the PlayStation 3 and XBox to clear the way for homework time. Another time, Grandpa caught him playing Grand Theft Auto. He snatched it out of the console and broke it in half, he said.

Tyjon ​“hunkered down,” did his homework, and ended up doing well on the CMTs, announced Grandpa with a smile. Watley said he planned to reward him with a new Pocket wireless phone and a Casio G‑Shock water-resistant watch. He viewed the bike as part of a package of prizes for working hard in class.

“It just gives me joy to see him doing so good in school, and getting rewarded like this,” Watley said.

Watley helped his grandson get fitted for a helmet and pick up his new bike. He snapped a picture of Tyjon on his new wheels.

“You did so good!” he declared.