Boys &Girls Club Slated for JAMS

By Menaka Fernando
Special to The Outlook

May 25 – A new Boys & Girls Club -- equipped with state-of-the-art technology -- is slated to open adjacent to John Adams Middle School early next year, after the School Board approved the $1.1 million project at its meeting last week.

About half of the total cost will be picked up by the Boys & Girls Club, said Allan Young, president of the club’s Santa Monica chapter. The difference will be funded by the School District and with grants from the Rotary Club of Santa Monica.

The local Rotary Club will provide $25,000, which has been matched by a grant from the Santa Monica Rotary Foundation, according to the club’s website.

“The center will keep at-risk kids off the streets, provide educational and technology resources, arts and social recreation, and some athletic programs,” according to the Rotary club website

The center will include a technology center that will feature film editing, a sound stage, robotics and animation, Young said. Some of the technology has been used at Malibu High School and has proven a success, he said.

The project has received support from community members and leaders, including the late Schools Superintendent Neil Schmidt and current Superintendent Dr. John Deasy, Young said.

After-school programs are critical to fostering knowledge and cooperation among students at an early age, school officials said. The center at JAMS will target elementary and middle-school-aged students.

“It is a much needed resource for JAMS, and I welcome it,” said board member Oscar de la Torre. “I appreciate the investment on behalf of club and also the school district.”

De la Torre, who is also executive director of the Pico Youth and Family Center, added that because JAMS serves hundreds of working-class families, it is the perfect location for the club.

The youth center is scheduled to open six months after breaking ground. Though originally scheduled to break ground in June, Young said construction would be delayed by three months due to altered plans that need to be approved by the State Architect.

The club would cater to students from JAMS, Will Rogers Elementary School and other surrounding schools from 7:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., at lunchtime, and after school until 7 p.m.

Though welcoming the new club, De la Torre expressed concerns about the youth center’s programming at past board meetings.

“I hope that the programming takes into account the cultural diversity of the school, social-economy diversity,” he said.

The club, de la Torres added, needs to have more programming that helps students prepare for college while at the same time, teaching kids about their own cultures.

Overall, “all of us, in-school programs and after-school programs, need to integrate the teachings of non-violence in our curriculum,” he said.

“It would be great to have strong lines of communications with teachers and staff at the boys and girls club so offer a continuum of academic and social support for our students in school and after school,” he said.

Before opening a new club at a school site, the club assesses the needs of a particular population and caters to those needs, Young said.

But he added that clubs exists at eight other SMMUSD sites, which have proven that the club’s “regular programming works.”

Though collaboration among the school’s faculty and the center’s staff is important, Young said in the end, “It is a Boys & Girls Club first.”