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West Rock Kids Reap Two-Wheeled Rewards
by Melissa Bailey | Jun 29, 2010 4:48 pm
(5) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Schools, West Rock, School Reform
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.
Post a Comment
Comments
posted by: Good for the kids on June 29, 2010 6:21pm
Goood for the kids… Have fun & be safe.
Now lets get to the real question. Do we really need to bribe kids to come to school everyday for 2 weeks? I could see if you got a bike for perfect attendence for the year but 2 weeks for the CMT’s? This is ridiculous and it’s a shame that this was the only way to try to get kids to attend school.
posted by: Jake on June 30, 2010 10:57am
Well what about the other kids from all the schools who had perfect attendance all year——I dont be grudge anything for kids but what happened to being fair——this is terrible for all other kids who did so well in school—-Im not very happy and so are the other parents that the children did well——
posted by: Yul A. Watley on June 30, 2010 4:58pm
Hold It, just stop. This program have been going on for 21 years, and they move it all over the city each year. The kids that received bikes this year just happened to be from this area, it was there turn. They were not given the bikes for just two weeks of school, they have worked hard all year and are excelling in the classroom. So, Congratulations to all the children that received bikes on yesterday, and I am here to say the Yul A. Watley is proud of you all.
GOOD JOB!!!
posted by: Good for the Kids on July 1, 2010 3:03pm
Yul A. Watley….
It says in the story 2nd paragraph
” 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 “.
Nobody is begrudging these kids for getting a new bike. I myself am just stating that I do not believe a child should get a bike for 2 weeks of perfect attendance no matter what neighborhood they live in. I think we should expect a little more from our youth and should not receive a new bike for such a short time of perfect attendance.
