How Blair Fross Reinvented Belmont Day's After School Program

SPARC has been busy bringing more resources to our members working in after school programs. In addition to our inaugural After School Jumpstart sessions, we held a roundtable for after school and enrichment planning, highlighted Armbrae Academy's after school CAS program, and talked to Rebecca Stokes on the SPARC Effect podcast about how to get teachers excited for after school (recording here). 

In a recent After School Jumpstart session, Blair Fross shared how she remade Belmont Day School's program in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown. The school serves 335 students from pre-K to 8th grade with between 1/3 and 1/2 of them participating in after school. Below are the five main steps she took to rebrand, restructure, and reinvent the program to become "the place to be" in her community.

Step One: Performed an Audit

Blair and her team spent a year doing an audit on their existing program. With the help of SPARC's Strategic Priorities Forced Ranking Worksheet, her team clarified who they were as a program and what they wanted to accomplish. "The forced ranking tool made the school leadership realize that an auxiliary program can't do everything," Blair says. "They had to choose."

The team decided they were an enrichment program--not a child or day care--focused on social/emotional learning, using the CASEL framework as their guide. They reworked their vision statement to reflect this clarity and ensured it aligned with the school's mission.

"Get everyone aligned about who you are and what you do and communicate it relentlessly."

--Blair Fross

Step Two: Hired More Staff

To accomplish the program's new goals, Blair lobbied for two more full-time staff members. They fill a hybrid role in the school, spending half their day as TAs and half in after school.

"Hiring more staff has really elevated the program," Blair says. It has allowed for vital continuity between the day and after school programs, ensuring that issues that come up with students during the school day are communicated to after school teachers and staff. 

Step Three: Restructured Enrichment

Blair and her team made two major changes to incentivize faculty to work in enrichment. In addition to receiving a stipend, teachers can use the program as a "test kitchen" for developing their own new curriculum. They can design, refine, and deliver a new class in after school, then use it in their own classrooms. 

"I also made the commitment," Blair says, "to use two-teacher teams in enrichment." Teachers enjoy the team approach in which one of them can manage the classroom while the other delivers the curriculum. Blair found that these new changes increased teacher retention while relieving stress on her staff. 

The program also brings in professionals from the community to support the program, including a graphic novelist who teaches a class in graphic design.

Step Four: Reached Out to the Community

Recognizing the need to be more of a presence in the greater community, Blair created events that welcomed students from the wider area. They've held pool parties, STEAM expos, Trick or Trunk nights, and "undernights"--events that are similar to an overnight, but end at 8:30 or 9:00 pm, which families love. 

"Our community events have helped to create a buzz that our after school is the place to be," Blair says. Registrations have increased. Before the outreach, they struggled to fill spots in an 8-student class. Now, some 12-student classes are filling up within five minutes of opening registration online.

Step Five: Created the Friday Program

Perhaps the greatest bolster to the program has been the creation of the Friday Program, a weekly half-day session designed around a monthly theme. Each month, they bring in a professional whose work aligns with the theme. This change has added new excitement to enrichment and relieved stress on after school staff.

For example, for the theme of "Innovation," they invited one of the original designers of My Little Pony, who held a workshop on design and marketing. Each student left with their own design for a new toy and marketing plan for that toy. Students and families love Fridays, which has only added to after school's reputation as "the place to be."

Advice 

For anyone looking to make their after school program, Blair emphasizes the work and time necessary for success, saying "There's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that go into this."  She also credits SPARC with helping by communicating trends and best practices within the industry and for offering support in what can be "a very lonely role." 

Blair's most important piece of advice: "Get everyone aligned about who you are and what you do and communicate it relentlessly. Everyone should be able to communicate the program's purpose." This includes school leadership, faculty, auxiliary staff, and families. 

After all the "blood, sweat, and tears," the remaking of Belmont's after school program has led to successful "buzz" and rebranding, higher registration numbers, greater clarity of purpose, innovative programming, and families excited about the program, making the investment of time and money more than worth it.

Looking for support for your after school--or summer--programs? As a SPARC member, you have access to a wealth of tools, videos, webinars, community support, and more, all designed to enhance your professional skills so you can bring more value to your programs. Join us today!