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Show cs The Salt Lake Tribune UTAH Sunday, Sep Schools: Home Away “There's no right or wrong so- Granite districts in the Salt Lake lution, there's no book with answers,” Kerr says. “You start doing one thing and then think, here’s something else we can do.” From Home The Extra Mile: In that, Whittieris not alone “Whatyou're seeing at Whittier is a good group of educators & Continued from C-1 and physically unable to care for her. Two school employees dipped into their own pockets to whosayto themselves, these kids can't learn without taking care of give gas money to a homeless father who lived with his familyina ear. And O'Keefe worked with nearbySalt Lake Community College to make showers available to anystudent who needs one. some of these problems,” says Stevan Kukic, director of services for at-risk students at the Utah State Office of Education. But Whittier is “more the rule than the exception,” he says. Schools in Ogden, San Juan County and in the Jordan and Valley also are going well beyond academics in serving their stu- dents, he says. In Salt Lake City, at least two other elementaries have washer-and-dryer sets available for students. There are 18 Utah schools ranked higher than Whittier on the state’s list of the 40 most “highly impacted” schools — meaning that they have high numbers of low-incomestudents, kids with poor English skills, dwindling numbers of two-parent famites and families that hop from apartment to apartment and thus from schoo!to school. Statewide, 78,000 childrenlive in poverty — that’s oneof eight. -DPVwIcCeED DAY CONE. y the Mayor couldn't be of Salt Lake City. Put me We'll cut 1 about the unreasonably high taxes we pay rs offi nd I'll put YOU in the mayors office. -- thefirst day: 10, 1995 The poverty rate in Utah increased 32% between 1988 and 1990, while the national increase was only 14%. Those problems are compounded by Utah's dearth of affordable housing. pick up groceries from a food bank thatis coordinated by senior citizens from a nearby center. The school and several cooperating agencies arrange for medical visits and provide eyeglasses and “Salt Lake City is probably like winter coats. They offer day care, work as a liaison between the courts, families and social work- Chicago in some respects,” says Gary Wehlage, associate director of the Center on Organization and Restructure of Schools at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. ers, and provide an interpreter to Spanish-speaking parents. “It's creating an extended family for families who don’t have one. We're trying to do what a family would do,” says O'Keefe. That's a controversial thing to “There are growing numbers of poor kids who come from homes where the parents, for whatever reason, are just not responsible for thera in the way we hoped they were and the way we thoughtthey do in a state where many people believe kids shouldn't even eat breakfast at school because that gives government too much control over family matters. were in the past,” he says. “If we go back to that bygone era, which may never have exist- ed, h had a lot more face-to-face contact. If fas a child threwrocks at a street light, Mrs. Jones would come out of her house and reprimand me,” Wehlage says. “We don’t knoweachother any more. We don't take responsibility for other people’s kids.” But some schools do take responsibility, in part by becoming morelike 2 community. And although Wehlage has studied such movements, Whittier is the first school he’s heard of that went so far as to install a washer and dryer. The set was donated. School-as-community is only a partial solution, Wehlage says. But Kukic says Whittier’s innovations are appropriate because the community — the district, the school, the parents, the students —— have embraced them. “I do not want chiidren to suffer because of what their parents do or do notdo. I don’t know why parents don’t provide breakfast orclean clothes. I'm notin a position to pass judgmenionthat. All I knowis that kids can’t learn if they're hungry or dirty,” he says. “We ought to allow good community pecple to make decisions about what their communities should be and what their schools should do.. . . The state shouldn't be deciding that. The Legislature shouldn’t decide that.” The Whittier community decidedlast year it was appropriate for that fifth-grade teacher to take a child home with herlast spring. “The mom needed a break and “It's a way ofreflecting the new needs, or the changing needs, of an urban ity. And teach- ers are kind of an early-warning il system. They're responding in the only way they can at this point.” the daughter needed something stable,” says the teacher, who had A Helping Hand: Whittier’s O'Keefe knows that schools alone cannot solve the problems some of her students have. That job, she says, must be tackled by ev- the mother’s permission. The girl had missed weeks of school, and the motherwas struggling with substance abuse. The family car had been towed and the eryone. But that doesn’t mean the of PTALs TRA school shouldn’t help families in crisis get “over the hump.” Every other Wednesday, families in need can go to Whittier to woman's boyfriend was in jail. “Onedaythegirl called me and said, ‘I can't wake Mom up. I wanna come to school,’ ” the “She was such an incredible girl. She has such potential. I just didn’t wantto see herfall apart,” the teacher says. Ai the same time, “she was the main reason that mom was surviving.” The child was reunited with her mother, and they since have moved away. Two weeks ago,there was letter on the teacher's desk from the girl. It said, “Stopped by te say hi. Critics might be offended by the personal nature of the care Whittier's teachers offer their students. Daniel's mother, Cheryl, sees it differently. She is unemployed and says she suffers from manic-depression. Sheis raising four children in a one-bedroom apartment by herself. Her husband is in a Texas prison. “If those people weuld come to this house andlive in this house for a week, with whatlittle I have. ... If they would just wake up, they'd realize that it’s a great relief to know theschoolis there for support on things like this,” says Cheryl, who asked that her last namenot be used. “T used to take my kids’ clothes into the kitchen and wash them in the sink until my hands would bleed,” she says. But these days, she says, even the three medications she has been prescribed cannotlift the veil of depression. “J just get so far down that I don’t do anything,” she says. “When Dantold me that Whittier had a washer and dryer, it was just like a small weight waslifted from my shoulders.” It was a relief for Daniel, too. “My whole family used to be so sad that I didn’t have clean clothes to go to schoolin,” he says with a grin. “Now I come home with clean clothes.” v1 mera 1 Ao)35 YOUSAVE $233!» {Actual do-hickey, otherwise known as a burrer} Before winter dropsin, its a good idea to check ail yourfurnace’ do-hickeys, 4. Checkto see that the venting systemis clear gizmos of obstructions and in goodcondition from thefun to the roof cap withall connectionssecurely fastened. and other parts hardly anyone can name ‘Button: bask HF siotien Get $50 offof selected | Rectiner items throughoutthe store 1 @ items: #9800, #9200, the cold days ahead. 5. 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