School Partnership
Next Meeting: TBA		Chair: Peter L. Duncan
Current Goals: Club 33 has a longstanding partnership with five inner city schools: Cesar Chavez Elementary, Sherman Elementary, Wilson Middle School, Hoover High School and San Diego High School. The ultimate objective is to ensure students become interested in education and achieve their academic potential.
Purpose: To interact with young people and help them to develop into future community leaders.
Activities/responsibilities: Rotarians provide direct adult support, assistance, caring and motivation for students who often lack this in their home and community environment. Additionally, Rotary provides some annual financial assistance, with the scope ranging from the purchase of books to sponsoring school club field trips and, in one case, even buying alarm clocks for kids to ensure they come to school on time. The program at Sherman Elementary and Cesar Chavez involves reading to and having discussions with a class once a week. This is to ensure the kids realize at an early age the importance of reading, and the enjoyment that can be derived from it. The program also provides the introduction of a “caring” adult in their lives. Rotary sponsors a club at Wilson Middle School called the “Tigers Forever”. The Tigers meet once a week and undertake community service projects, participate in field trips, and receive occasional presentations on various professions. Additionally, they have their own business enterprise through which they sell items donated from estate sales at swap meets, on e-bay, and at other functions. The money generated is used to support some of the more far-ranging field trips, to pay for the eighth graders to participate in the district-wide trip to New York and Washington, DC, and occasionally, a small amount may go into each student’s savings account in order to begin teaching them some financial responsibility. The “Tigers” also provide some form of gift to the school each year. At Hoover High School the primary focus is on providing mentors. This normally involves meeting with a student once a week for about 30 minutes. Understanding, support, motivation and caring are provided by the mentor, with occasional tutoring assistance where requirements and capabilities are matched. Mentors often make the difference between a high school graduate (many of whom go on to college) and another high school drop-out. Rotary also provides panel members who evaluate the senior portfolio presentations (a requirement for graduation). This involves about 2-3 hours on one day in January and again in May. Additionally we support Reading Day each year, which involves reading to and discussing the importance of reading to a class. The program at San Diego High School is somewhat different from the one at Hoover High School. SDHS in 2004-05 divided into six separate schools: School of Arts; School of Science & Technology; School of LEADS (Leadership in the Community); School of CIMA (Communications in a Multicultural Atmosphere); School of Business; and School of International Studies. Rotarians are now working with four of the six Schools’ Advisory Boards. It is envisioned that the PTSA will disband and as a consequence, community (Rotarian) members of the Advisory Boards will gain in importance to the students. They help guide curricula in the direction of building career paths for graduates (School to Career). One Rotarian is tutoring and mentoring. All six Schools’ counselors are charged with assisting any Rotarians who would like to mentor or tutor. Two Rotarians are active board members on the SDHS Foundation board, raising money to support programs regarded as very important but no longer funded by the School District, i.e. band, athletics, testing, field trips, scholarships, and more. Rotarians also evaluate senior portfolio presentations. Rotarians are involved with the SDHS Interact Club, helping with their projects; Interactors are mentoring young homeless children at St. Vincent de Paul Homeless Center.
Why join: Many inner city kids are deprived of a stable and supportive family. Failure has all too often become the accepted norm. These children are the future of this country, thus we need to do all we can to make sure they become productive citizens. Most of us all had adult help when we were kids... now is the time for you to provide payback. You can participate in any of these programs without being a member of the committee. However, why not get “committee membership” recognition for something you are doing?

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