Strengths

The Bel Air School CARES is a well established program with strong support from our community partners as well as from our school site and administration. This support stems from a history of excellent programming, coordination, and strong program leadership. Financially we are supported by grants from both state and city initiatives, as while as a site dedication to Fund Raising. Fund Raising projects have included; a community carnival, dances, bake sales, site student store, Spirit Shirts & a school wide coin drive.

Challenges

In order to maintain high quality services being offered to our students and families, additional funding sources are continually being pursued. There is an ongoing need to maintain high quality training and mentorship for CARES staff to ensure qualified staff are serving our students. Opportunities for culturally diverse and enriching opportunities prepare students with the life experiences. Opportunities for parent education and support.

Programs for Youth and Families

Homework Help, Success For All Reading, Academic Intervention Program, ASPIRE Intervention Program, Read Naturally Intervention Program, Drama Language Art Intervention Program, Nutrition Education and Cooking, Dance, Hockey, Meditation, Arts and Crafts, Clubs, Gardening

Daily nutritional snack provided in partnership with Food Services Department and the USDA.

• School day teachers instruct the Intervention portion of CARES.
• Representative of CARES in Student Care Team (SCT) and attends faculty, Leadership, and grade level meetings & Best Leadership.
• Teacher Leader also teaches Success For All & English Language Development, During the regular school day.
• Aliment of behavior support programs; BEST, Stop Bullies, & Success For All.
• Planner of educational and recreational parent nights.
• Informal and formal means of communication in place to facilitate discussion between CARES staff and school day teachers.
• CARES staff complete and share Bi-monthly Student Progress reports with classroom teachers.
• After School assist with translations for the regular school day.

• Homework Help: 1 hour HW assistance four days a week and 1 ј hour structured enrichment or recreation.
• Success For All Reading: 10 minutes of Listening Comprehension & 10 minutes of silent reading daily.
• Intervention Program: 1 hour of academic Intervention with a Credentialed teacher in either English Language Arts or Mathematics twice a week. Student to teacher ratio is 8:1. This program has eligibility requirements, inquire within.

• Enrichment opportunities: 1 Ѕ hours structured enrichment or recreation. Enrichment programming includes arts and crafts, athletics, hockey, leadership, dance including Latin & Hip Hop, tall flags, grant writing, meditation and programs. Programming focuses on the youth development model.
• Nutrition Education: 7 hours a week of nutrition education and physical activity promotion. Students participate in nutrition lessons, fitness card, cooking classes, site gardening and field trips to the Gardens.
• Bel Air CARES Gardens: We have a garden, where students work with a garden teacher twice a week, integrating nutrition & healthy school education. Here students are given a chance to appreciate the wonders of nature.
• CARES Gardens: Our two After School Gardens host daily classes in the garden serving all 14 CARES After School programs integrating nutrition, youth development and community development.
• Community Family Nights: We offer a wide variety of family nights thorough the year. We hosted a Cultural Creation Story Telling night, a Love Bug Dance, A Holiday Magic Show as well multiple free clothing drives. We also have a handful of events that are still to come; Multicultural Potluck, School Beatification, Field Day & many more.

• North Gate High School Volunteers: 15 High School students come once a week to tutor students in Math.
• Volunteer Mentor Program- We have a volunteer program were students in Middle & High School can take part in being trained to be a mentor to students. Currently we have 4 volunteers in this program. Students who continue with this program will learn to give back to there community and will be prepared with appropriate work ethics.

Who We Serve

Number of Students served: 185
Free & Reduced Lunch: 59%
English Learner: 40%
Special Education: 16%
Male: 49.8%
Female: 50%

Demographics
Filipino: 4 %
Latino: 43 %
African American: 38 %
Indian: 2 %
White: 7 %
Other Non-White: 6 %

How We Serve
Staff to student ratio: 1:20
Number of credentialed staff:13
Number of volunteers:25
Number of CARES staff: 20
Number of subcontractors: 4

Community Partners

• City of Concord Park and Recreation
• MDUSD
• East Bay Mud