P.S. 9 Moves Forward With 'Whole Child' Project

This fall, parents and students at P.S. 9 may have noticed the revamping of recess. Soon they’ll be asked to fill out a survey, with such questions as whether they like school, whether there is bullying, and if they consider yesterday’s lunch to be healthy.

The changes are part of the “Whole Child Project,” a three-year program designed to improve learning by addressing children’s physical, social and emotional needs as well as their academic ones.

The Underhill Avenue elementary school was one of 10 schools chosen for the program, which is run by the nonprofit ASCD, an education leadership association based in Alexandria, Va. 

Over the next few weeks, the school will assess its strengths and weaknesses in such areas as family engagement and school climate through anonymous surveys filled out by parents, teachers and, with parental permission, students in grades 2 through 5, those who are old enough to fill out the surveys themselves.

Once the weaknesses are determined, school committees will work with ASCD to develop a plan to rectify them.

While most of the changes will begin to be implemented next year, the physical education component is already in full swing.

The new recess program is run by Tashan Kilkenny, aka Coach K, who is funded in part by a $10,000 grant from ASCD. Kilkenny comes to the school through Playworks, a national nonprofit has the goal of helping schools work towards inclusion, respect, healthy play and healthy communities.

He will work full-time at the school running outdoor games beginning at 7:30 a.m. for students who are dropped off early, organizing active games during recess, working with individual classes on conflict resolution, and running a “Junior Coach” program for 4^th and 5^th graders and creating an interscholastic team at PS 9 of either volleyball or girl’s basketball. According to P.S. 9, research shows that if girls don't become involved with sport by 5th grade, they are unlikely to become involved in higher grades.

Editor's Note, Nov. 13, 8:12 p.m.: The parent info session has been postponed and the information on it was deleted from the story. -ASC