45 Maryland schools set up on-site ‘equity hubs’
Nine months after the pandemic closed Stedwick Elementary School, learning in suburban Montgomery County, Md., is still all remote. But while most students plug in on laptops from home, some are on campus, working from holiday-decorated classrooms.
They are part of “equity hubs” that bring small groups of children together so that parents who struggle financially have a safe, supervised place for their children to focus on online learning. The hubs are akin to the “pandemic pods” that more affluent families have created, often hiring tutors or teachers.
“This has been a blessing for us,” said Lindsay Montgomery, a single mother of three who lives in Rockville and said the program has allowed her to work in the afternoons without taking her 5-year-old along. It also has helped him keep up in kindergarten, she said.
“He loves it,” she said. “He was having a lot of trouble at home focusing.”
The program, located at roughly 45 public schools in Montgomery, opened in mid-September with a handful of students and grew steadily. More than 1,050 students are now enrolled.
Among those who participate, the average family income is less than $30,000 a year, and nearly all children qualify for free and reduced-price school meals. Families pay up to $50 a month per child.
“This is an effort for equity for people who can’t afford to hire a teacher or do the things that other parts of the county can do,” said Byron Johns, co-founder of the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence, which advocated for the project.
The program is funded through the Children’s Opportunity Fund, a public-private partnership in Montgomery that raised $550,000 to launch it. Since then, it has received $3.6 million in grant money from the school system and county government.
But the future is unclear. The funding lasts through the end of January; school and county government officials are expected to discuss further funding in coming weeks.
Supporters say the goal is to continue the project until children are back in school buildings for in-person learning and support. Depending on health metrics, some students could return in February.
Those involved say the pandemic has exacerbated the wide gap between students with resources and students without — and shows how much parents depend on schools to oversee their children while they work.
It also shows the struggle many face with distance learning. Failing grades shot up as much as sixfold for the first quarter in math and English for some of Montgomery’s most vulnerable students.
“It’s more important than ever that we provide this important service,” said Kimberly Rusnak, project director of the Children’s Opportunity Fund, which operates under the Greater Washington Community Foundation.
For Nancy Ramos of Germantown, Md., the program helped her fill a child-care gap while she works as a restaurant manager. She could not have afforded standard childcare costs — about $1,300 a month per child — and she found that her second-grader and fifth-grader liked the staff, along with the structure and schedule, she said.
“They look at it the same way they do when they are going to school,” she said.
Other parents agreed it made a big difference.
“For me, right now, it’s a huge, huge help,” said Israel Arocha, a single father of two who lives in Montgomery Village.
One recent day, children in one Stedwick classroom played outside during a morning break in their classes.
Victory Walker, 7, was cartwheeling across the grass as two boys only slightly older were running the length of the schoolyard to see who was fastest. Soon a fifth-grader joined, kicking a soccer ball as it skipped across the field.
Inside, children are seated at desks spaced more than 6 feet apart, each with a laptop and headset for doing their online learning.
“It helps their attendance in class and their participation in class,” said Stedwick Principal Margaret Pastor.
Children say they like it. Several compare it to school. Others say they are happy to see friends.
“It’s more fun because it has more space to run around,” said Leo Sosa, a second-grader.