By: Carrie James
East Meadow district fosters personal growth through creative arts program
Seven-year-old Kerri Robertson cautiously holds the jar of sugar, gently pouring one cup's worth as part of a recipe in her Junior Chefs class.
She and the other students in the Creative Arts Program of East Meadow cooking class would help their instructor Brigida Sclafani make a variation of chocolate chip cookies.
"Today we're making crunchie jumbles," Sclafani said. "We start out simple and work our way to more difficult recipes. Kids learn about the different equipment in addition to cooking."
Junior Chefs is just one of more than 30 classes that the East Meadow School District offers through its CAPE program, which just started its second session of the spring semester, said Sharon Mosley, CAPE director.
"The program itself has been around 21 years," she said. "It was originally sponsored by the school board. They came up with the idea to offer activities to students after school."
In the beginning, Mosley said the offerings were slim with only four choices for students - arts and crafts, computer, dance and gymnastics.
Since its humble beginnings, though, the program has grown to roughly 800 students, ages 4-12, per 12-week semester and expanded to include classes such as beginning keyboard, karate, woodworks and acting.
"We survey the students and parents, as well as the instructors and myself try to come up with a variety of classes to offer the kids," Mosley said. "We change the classes as we see fit based on the enrollment numbers. "
These days, CAPE offers two semesters during the school year, Mosley said. During each, students have the opportunity to take 12-week and six-week courses either on Tuesday or Wednesday evening or Saturday morning.
Regardless of which day or class they choose, parents and instructors said they believe it gives children an opportunity to experience an activity and decide whether they want to continue with it.
"I think the program is very beneficial," Mosley said. "It gives kids a chance to express themselves. It's giving them the opportunity to experience different creative and physical activities they may not get the opportunity to experience in school."
While the after-school program began more than 20 years ago, CAPE started a summer session about nine years ago so that parents could give their children a creative opportunity during vacation as well.
As part of the summer session, youngsters have the opportunity to participate in a four-week intensive session where they can take up to three classes, three times a week. Each class is equivalent to a 12-week course during the school year.
The summer program typically offers a couple classes not offered during the school year as well, Mosley said. They include The Artist Within - a class that lets students discover their own creativity through studio art projects. The summer session also offers a book-making class, a brain-busters course and jewelry making.
During the school year or summer, many parents take advantage of the CAPE program because it's an inexpensive way to introduce kids to an activity.
For example, Fariba Gordon enrolled her son Sean, 8, in a 12-week beginner karate course, because he wanted to learn. Private lessons cost more, she said. The CAPE program ran $75 for the 12 weeks plus a $5 registration fee.
"These programs give [students] an opportunity to see if they like it and want to continue," Mosley said, adding that it's a good way for parents to save on money in the beginning before their child knows if they want to dedicate themselves to an activity for more than a couple months. "This is the first step, CAPE, and if he's interested, maybe he can take more outside of CAPE."
