By Trey Mewes

trey.mewes@austindailyherald.com

AUSTIN — Fifth-grader Charles Andersen waited patiently for the other Neveln Elementary School students to stop what they were doing on Thursday afternoon. He took a look around Neveln’s gymnasium to make sure all eyes were on him before he put his right foot behind his left knee. With a quick, rubberband motion, Andersen dropped to the floor, his right foot making contact with the gym court’s hardwood surface before he balanced on both feet and spun around, standing up at the same time.

In a corkscrew maneuver, Andersen had demonstrated the “pin drop,” a hip-hop dance move. Andersen, the captain of Neveln’s Thursday Hip-Hop club, set the example for his fellow students to follow.

Neveln’s Hip-Hop club is one of many after school programs offered district-wide to elementary school students, which many are taking advantage of. About 167 students participate in after school classes at Neveln, which is more than a quarter of the school’s population.

“Its goal is really not just opportunities for homework support,” said Bonnie Erickson, the after school programming coordinator at Neveln.

Neveln’s After School Academy (NASA) is designed to get students of all backgrounds together to learn about common goals. The emphasis on after school programming originated as part of Neveln’s action plan to help students improve on state comprehensive tests, specifically to help students make Adequate Yearly Progress on the annual Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment exams. However, increasing classroom opportunities was only part of the stimulus behind NASA, as the building’s teachers decided to find ways to give extra support to students beyond classroom time. As a result, much of the after school programming is funded through the Alliance for Educational Equity, the integration collaborative which Austin Public Schools is a part of.

“Our equity team has really been calling for this,” Erickson said. “They really felt that it would be a great support to our kiddos to have that.”

Teachers and volunteers have stepped up to provide time and classroom space to teach kids a variety of skills since NASA began last week. There’s a homework help period every school day Monday through Thursday. On top of that, there are reading and math classes targeted for students who are on the cusp of making AYP, along with a host of other options. Aside from the hip-hop club, which meets twice a week, Neveln has three nutrition classes a week, an after school choir and more classes to come, as more volunteers have signed up to run classes in topics like sewing and Mandarin Chinese.

With so many students, finding enough classrooms and volunteers has been tough. School officials hadn’t expected a turn out like this when they allowed parents to sign students up during fall conferences.

“I kind of expected that I would be recruiting kids to come, and we kind of registered kids at first,” Erickson said. “By conference time, my mouth was just hanging wide open.”

Chrissy DeLuna, a success coach at Neveln, felt the same way. This is her third year running a hip-hop club in the district, as she ran a club at Sumner Elementary School for the past two years. She’s worked with many struggling and special education students through the hip-hop club, although it was always a small to medium-sized group, growing from 12 to 25 kids last year.

“I felt like a lot of kids weren’t getting anything they really liked, or had something that was for them,” DeLuna said of her decision to start a hip-hop club. “At this time there wasn’t a lot of after school programming.”

DeLuna’s previous hip-hop clubs had success at Sumner, as she chose special education students who were interested in hip-hop dancing to captain the club, something which they normally either wouldn’t have done or wouldn’t have had the chance to do.

“A lot of those kids can’t help how they behave. This kind of gave kids a little bit of a reward to have something to do,” DeLuna said. “Now they were getting noticed for being the captains of hip-hop club. I kind of gave them a little bit of an open door to talk about something they like, kind of turned the role around.”

When DeLuna switched elementary schools earlier this year, she wasn’t sure how well a hip-hop dancing club would be received at Neveln. To her and the rest of Neveln’s staff’s surprise, about 50 fourth and fifth grade kids signed up for the program. They had to be split into two classes, meeting on Wednesdays and Thursdays until the end of the year where they will work on hip-hop dance routines, learn about hip-hop music around the world and figure out important diversity lessons together. At some point, the hip-hop clubs will perform for Neveln students during a school assembly.

“The culture has changed here in Austin, and let’s appreciate what kids like,” DeLuna said. “Let’s give them an opportunity to belong to something they like.”

Ruth Neil, a nutrition education assistant with the University of Minnesota Extension Program, volunteered her time Thursday afternoon to teach students about red fruits and vegetables.

“What time of year can we get apples?” she asked a class of about 15 Neveln students.

“Early fall to October,” they shouted back at her in unison.

Neil has worked with the district since 2007, although she works throughout Mower County for the U of M. She runs a nutrition class at Sumner for third grade students and may get to teach another at Neveln during the day based on how many students were interested in nutrition classes. Neil teaches students how to identify various produce as well as show how beneficial they are for people to eat.

“I really encourage them to describe how (fruits and vegetables) taste,” she said. “Not just ‘yuck’ or ‘ew,’ but describing how fruits and vegetables taste bitter or sour or sweet.”

Erickson hopes more volunteers step forward to share what they know with students, not just at Neveln but at all the district’s elementary schools. At Neveln, even principal Dewey Schara participates in the after school programming. He stopped by the hip-hop club Thursday afternoon to spend time with students as well.

“It was fantastic,” Schara said. “I may have to stretch before I go in there next time.”