SAUGUS — In her first year as program manager at Kids Come First, the afterschool program serving students in grades two through five at the Belmonte STEAM Academy, Katrina McNichol has been able to grow the program well beyond initial estimates, and preparations are now underway to bring Kids Come First to the Veterans Early Learning Center.
At the beginning of the school year, Kids Come First was able to meet demand for 60 students at the BSA. Now, the program serves over 110 and McNichol said Monday that there is no longer a waitlist for the program.
“It’s growing day by day and I say yes to anybody that wants a spot any day,” she said.
Superintendent Erin McMahon credited McNichol with “essentially [rebuilding] the program from the ground up.”
“It’s a huge deal,” McMahon said, noting that McNichol essentially doubled the program’s enrollment in roughly a month.
McNichol, who in previous years served as a lead teacher for the program, admitted she was surprised by how quickly the expansion has taken place, and credited it primarily to the effect of word of mouth.
“I’ve worked the program in the past and I knew a lot of the paraprofessionals that worked in the program and so I came into this role … I knew a lot of the staff ahead of time and I was able to reach out to them and and just be like, ‘Hey, did you know like we have openings? and I’m seeing that we don’t have a lot of people that have applied for it so what do you think we should do about this?’ and really talking to other people on their ideas and getting feedback from staff and bringing together everybody’s ideas was huge,” McNichol said in an interview.
Students spend roughly three hours at Kids Come First, with their afternoons being split between three areas — homework help, which on Monday was taking place in the Library, active play in the school’s gym, and tabletop activities in the cafeteria.
Many of the paraprofessionals working at Kids Come First are also Saugus Public Schools teachers, which McNichol said adds a degree of familiarity for students that has been key for the program’s growing success.
“A lot of our staff are in the classrooms with these students so they know how the methods are being taught, they know what the homework is … and they know the students, like what they’re motivated by, they know how to interact with them easily. There’s just that trust that they have right from the get go,” she said. “If a student starts tomorrow, they already know a bunch of familiar faces, not only their friends, but the staff as well.”
McMahon and McNichol both emphasized the importance of parents knowing that their children have a safe place to go after school, and in the case of Kids Come First, the program being housed in the school building adds an added layer of comfort and safety.
“A lot of parents said they came in from Boston and it really just helped them be able to be at their job and then and then pick up their kids from place again, where they felt safe. They knew their kids belong and they felt like they had a trusted adult who they could call on,” McMahon said.
“It’s just a really safe place is the bottom line,” McNichol added. “As a parent myself, I want to know that my child is, first of all, getting to where they’re supposed to go safely. There’s less transition, they’re coming right to the building, just somewhere else in the building, somewhere that they’re familiar with, with familiar faces.”
As the district looked to rebuild Kids Come First in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials sent a survey to parents asking them what they wanted to see in an after school program. Many, according to McMahon, said they valued the opportunities for their children to form bonds with teachers more than homework assistance.
“What we heard from the data was actually less interest in homework help and more interest in the social emotional connections with staff who parents trusted,” McMahon said.
The planned expansion of the program, McMahon said, came in part from feedback from families at the Veterans Early Learning Center who expressed a desire for the kind of child care Kids Come First can provide.
“Our pre-K to first grade families expressed the need for that high quality child care with adults who they trust,” she said. “There’s different options in Saugus, but what we’ve heard is they fill up quickly, which is why last fall, we said we really need a community solution for childcare, because Kids Come First is one aspect, the YMCA is one aspect, and youth rec is one aspect but communities that do the best are the ones that are really able to coordinate across across different providers, both private and public.”
McNichol added that Kids Come First would “love” to provide that opportunity to students and families, in part because nothing like it exists at the school currently. The foundation of a program at the VELC is in place, McNichol said, with the primary effort now focused on logistics.
Two of the students enrolled in Kids Come First — fourth graders Olivia Oliveira and Jonathon Alegria — said they enjoyed the social aspects of the program.
“I like that we can play and we can hang out and we can do a lot of stuff with our friends if they come here, and we can just spend more time with each other instead of being in school all day not being with each other. We can just have a lot of fun and play a lot,” Oliveira said, noting that she frequently plays dodgeball, “off-the-wall ball,” and soccer during Kids Come First.
“I just like how it’s all about fun and … the teachers can always help you and just like you can have fun,” Alegria, a self-described “lifelong” Kids Come First attendee, added. “I play soccer sometimes I play dodgeball, off the wall, and then I just run around.”
Alegria and Oliveira both said they would recommend Kids Come First to their friends.
“It’s just all about learning, how to be respectful, and you get to play,” Alegria said.
Charlie McKenna can be reached at [email protected].
