MS After Care

Policies

Handbook

Operations:

1. Traffic Flow: After care students are to enter and leave through the south exit. They are not permitted to use the north exit that leads to the library. They are also not allowed to use the door leading to MC 22. This allows departmentalization of security throughout the building and limits the liability of after care workers.

2. Time: After care opens at 3:10 PM and closes at 5:30 PM. Students are allowed to congregate in the after care room the moment school ends without being signed in. At 3:10, all students not involved in a parallel activity within the room are to be signed in. Parents who leave their children in after care after 5:30 are charged fines. The after care attendant must stay until all students leave.

3. Lock Up: The computer lab must be shut down after each day.

• Check for power LEDs by turning off the over head lighting . Only the server, printer and administrative computers should be left on. Absolutely no monitors should be left on.
• Close and lock all the doors in the computer room and in MC 22. The door to the fire escape is locked using an allen wrench kept inside the instructor's desk in the top drawer. The swinging fire doors leading to the fire escape are propped open with a dry wall screw. Remove the screw and place it behind the tape on the door lintel.

• Set the alarm by typing in the alarm code provided by your supervisor. If the alarm does not set, check and make sure all the doors are closed in the computer lab and in MC 22.

• Exit out of the computer lab using the door to the library and lock the dead bolt. Lock the library using the key provided by your supervisor.

4. Opening Procedure: Unlock the fire escape door using the allen wrench located in the top drawer of the instructor's desk. Be sure to return the allen wrench when you finish. Prop the swinging fire door with a dry wall screw that can be found behind the tape in the door lintel. Prop the fire escape door open using the piece of metal found above the cabinet. The door is propped open to avoid any appearance of in appropriate behavior on the part of the students or attending staff.

Parallel Activities:

1. Detentions: Students who require light behavioral correction are often sent to the after care room for computer based detentions. These students are to remain in their seats until they finish their assigned detention. They are not permitted to talk with other students or participate in any other activities. They are not to be signed in on the after care roll sheet.

2. Chess Club: The High School Chess / Strategy Game Club meets daily in the after care room. These students are to be treated as guests. If their behavior becomes a problem, they are to be ejected from the room or be given a detention, at the discretion of the person in charge of the after care room.

3. After school help: Students from many classes in the High School come to the after care room to work on papers, assignments and make-up tests. Most teachers will require a signed note to be attached to the student's work verifying that it was done under the supervision of an attendant. Provide these services but render no assistance to students unless specified by the instructor providing the work. Do not allow students taking tests to sit near each other. Students coming for after school help are not signed into the after care roll.

Participant Classifications:

1. Normal Member: Students participating in the after care program are involved in three projects.

• First, they are invited to play computer strategy games as part of a three year experiment to see if students that play strategy games come to be better at high level thinking skills. they are rewarded using class room currency and exchange that currency for rewards.
• Second, they may participate in after care advancement by running computer programs that teach English, Math, Science, History and Music. By achieving in these areas they again earn currency that they can use to buy rewards.

• Third, they may use the computer lab to do homework, socialize or play board games.

2. Homework Restriction: Upon parental request a student is placed on homework restriction. Students that are on restriction must finish their homework before participating in any other activity.

Personal Freedoms:

1. Food: Students in after care are permitted to eat any foods except gum and may bring drinks but may only have them at the drink table.

2. Music: Playing or practicing musical instruments is permitted until or unless any other student objects. The right to quiet and concentration is higher than the right to make noise. Walkmans are forbidden unless a parent requests that their child be permitted to use a walkman in writing. The school must not be put in a position where it could be held liable for self destructive behavior on the part of its students.

3. Safety: All students must feel safe from any form of physical or verbal assault. Throwing objects of any type is forbidden. Threatening remarks and abusive speech is forbidden. Running, wrestling, horseplay and any behavior that would not be acceptable in an office is forbidden.

4. Freedom of Passage: Students are allowed to leave after care briefly to get materials from their locker, use the rest room or get refreshments. Students may sign themselves out of after care to meet their parents, go to tutoring sessions or attend school events. The superintendent has forbidden elementary students to attend MS after care. Students and parents are not permitted to leave through the library door. It is important to protect the security of the library and the tech room. The library door can only be relocked with a key.

5. Telephone Usage: After care students are permitted to use the telephone located in the computer lab for brief local calls. They are encouraged to give the after care number out to their parents or responsible adults. Extended personal calls are forbidden. They block incoming calls from parents and cause logistical difficulties.

6. Dress Code: Students must wear either their school uniform, PE uniform or clothing related to school activities. Any other clothing must be cleared by the after care attendant or the office in advance.

Paper Flow:

1. The MS After Care Log: After care attendants are to enter students into the MS after care log as they enter the computer lab. Entries are made by merely writing in the time the student entered in the box representing the current day. Each box contains space for three pieces of information. The time the student enters, the time the student leaves and a space for parents to initial when they pick up their children. The other two sections of the box are filled out when parents arrive. Each after care log is good for one week.. At the end of the week, the after care log is taken to the office where student attendance is reviewed. From there it goes to the business office to be referenced to prepare bills for the parents of students who stay at after care and to prepare pay checks for after care attendants.

2. The After Care Note Book: A record is kept of student achievment for the purpose of calculating rewards. Each student advancment is recorded on his or her record sheet using a system of marks and notations. These record sheets are kept in a notebook. If a student wants to be rewarded with credits they can use to buy rewards, they show the after care attendant their achievment. The after care attendant then checks their current work against the best work listed in the after care notebook. If the student's current work is better than the best work listed in the notebook by a significant margin, the student recieves a reward and a notation is made in the after care notebook

3. The After Care Sources of Revenue Chart: This chart, posted on the wall, lists all rewardable accomplishments and the reward the student receives for achieving that level of performance. It covers all areas including Mathematics, History, Government, English and Science.