Staff Spotlight: After-school program at PS 21

Learn about the after-school program at PS 21 from three different staff members!

[Interviews from March 7th, 2024]

Kayla Boyd, Director

Can you tell me your name and your position here?

Kayla Boyd: My name is Kayla Boyd. I am the program director for the after-school program at PS 21.

How long have you been doing it?

KB: I’ve been here since January 2023. About a year and two months now.

Can you tell me a little bit about your program?

KB: We are an after-school program for kindergarten through fifth graders. We have a curriculum, this year it’s “Brooklyn and the Boroughs.” We do lots of different things each day like movement time, social emotional learning, supper, playtime, reflection time, and so on. We also have thirteen holiday camps throughout the year where we services half of the kids in our program. We try to do field trips, we try to make it a fun experience. Then during the summer we have Summer Rising and that’s fun of its own because we do trips every Friday.

Can you tell me a little about your specific role here?

KB: My job is to supervise all of the employee and children in our program. I handle all of the trainings for staff and observe their teaching styles and how they manage behavior. I’m also here to support the staff daily with anything that they need, whether it’s gathering materials or trying to make a more enriching program. I’m just making sure that everyone is okay at all times, everyone is safe at all times and that our program is in tip top shape to run at all times. I also make sure policies and procedures are being performed correctly and I have to report incidents. I also have to talk to a lot of parents and I’m the main person that communicates from BCS to the school.

What’s your favorite part about your job?

KB: I think my favorite part of my job is being able to connect and relate with the kids. I like to change my hair up and I like to change the clothes and shoes that I wear and every day there’s at least two to three kids who come up to me and they’re like “Ms. Boyd! I like your shoes!” Or “Ms. Boyd! I like your hair!” I just love that I’m showing them some form of representation. When the little girls get their hair done, I always comment on it, “I love your hair!” Or when little boys get a haircut or new shoes I say something too. I like to connect with them in that way because I don’t want them to ever feel like how I felt when I was a kid. I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. I felt like a big outcast. And I don’t want any of them to feel like that. My favorite thing is going into the cafeteria every single day when the kids come in and give me a hug and they’re all like, “Hi Ms. Boyd!” It doesn’t matter how my day went in the morning, once I see the children, my whole mood changes. Not only because it has to for them, but because they make my mood change because they’re just so happy to see me for no reason. Just to see me!

Are there any specific memories or anecdotes you can share?

KB: My first Culminating Event here was last June. I come from a performance arts background, so I loved seeing all of the grades go up there and put on a performance. Everything was different and they took it so seriously. I loved it. When I saw that, I was like, “Wow, these kids are special.” Not only that, but the teachers too, because the teachers took time to do that. At that moment, I was like, “I really, really like my job.” I was a second grade teacher before this and I wasn’t the biggest fan of being in a classroom of thirty kids. But I like supervising 140! It feels like a community here. At BCS, we hold each other down. Even when I have my bad days, we all come together and we work together, we support each other. I feel like having a very positive work environment makes you like what you do. It just makes me love my job.

Why do you think this program is so important to this specific community or this neighborhood?

KB: One, because a lot of these parents work full time and they don’t have the childcare coverage that they need. A lot of them come from single parent homes and don’t have childcare. You can see the demand is very high. I wish we could serve more kids but unfortunately, we can’t. We have like fifty kids on our waiting list and it sucks. A lot of the children are going through things at home, they don’t really know how to regulate their emotions. They’re learning how to regulate their emotions through the after-school programs, through the conversations that they have with the teachers, with our social workers, with certain social emotional learning that we do. It’s teaching them these basic skills that they don’t even know are basic, but it’s really going to help them as they get older, because they may not get that support when they leave this program. It also gives them a chance to spend time with their friends. They love that because they’re in school all day doing academics and then after school, there’s more wiggle room to have fun. I see how all of these things are so important to this school, specifically in this community. I see it daily through the way parents interact with their children, through the way the children interact with the teachers, and through the way that they interact with me. Children don’t act out for no reason. They don’t, it’s as simple as that. My job is to make them feel as if I am here for them. I try to do that to the best of my ability without making them feel like they’re in trouble all the time. Their first instinct is always that they’re in trouble. I say, “No, you’re not in trouble. let’s work backwards, I’m just trying to figure out what happened.” You can see some of these kids aren’t even used to being talked to like that. Some of these kids are just used to being yelled at and then detaching completely or shutting down altogether. Some of them just start crying automatically, they don’t know how to regulate their emotions, they’re children! You can see the change in the children from September to now, how they’re opening up, they’re more sociable, they’re having more conversations, they’re more willing to tell you certain things. And that is beautiful to me. Because it’s like, alright, we’re doing something right.

Is there something that’s challenging about your job?

KB: I feel like because I’m one of the youngest staff here that sometimes it is a barrier because everyone has a different teaching style. Most of the staff have been teachers for a long time. Sometimes it might feel like, “Oh, this young person is coming in to just change stuff.” And it’s like, I’m not trying to come in and change stuff, I’m trying to come in to improve things. I’m a little bit closer in age with the kids that are here and sometimes some of the parents as well. I have that fresh pair of eyes from their generation, I can tweak things a little bit to get them to engage and understand better. It can be challenging to keep a balance with me and my staff and the children because of my age. A lot of the time parents think I’m eighteen years old and I’m like, “No, I’m twenty-five and I have a baby. I get it. I can relate a lot to you guys.”

Is there anything you’re looking forward to coming up in your program?

KB: We have our Empowerment Show coming up on March 22nd. We have an egg hunt coming up as well. I’m also very excited for our Culminating Event this year! I can’t wait for Summer Rising because this year, we have a little bit more in our budget to do more for the kids. I’m ready to start planning field trips and make it a really fun summer because summer was busy last year, but it was very fun. It was fun for me because I’ve never, in my entire years of school, ever been to summer camp, ever, like ever. So that was kind of like healing my inner child. I’m just very grateful that we have money allocated in the summer to do more for these children.

Is there anything else you want to share?

KB: I just think that BCS at PS 21 is great. I think it’s an amazing program, I can understand why children want to get in, why parents want their children to get it. I think that all of the staff here are wonderful at what they do. They’ve been here for so long. My motto is, if it works, it works. And there’s a lot of things here that have worked. I just love how team- and family-based this program is because without that, I don’t think that this program would be so strong and function the way that it does so smoothly on a daily basis. I just want to keep that energy for the entire time that I’m in this position and who knows where else I’ll be with BCS!

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Alexis Vivar, Assistant Director

Can you tell me your name and your position here?

Alexis Vivar: Alexis Vivar. I am the assistant site director.

And what does that entail?

AV: I play tag team with Ms. Boyd. We separate the daily routine, she will do the cafeteria and I’ll monitor the classrooms and support the teachers with materials and things like that. If any teachers are out, I will cover that class. I also support in cleanup, so when all the classes start leaving, Ms. Boyd and I will stay behind to make sure we clear out the cafeteria, getting any materials and just kind of setting up and just observing classrooms. We do a lot. And that’s why we have to separate it. Then we have to do daily counts in the afternoon for supper, so we have to fill out paperwork for that. We also submit permits and set up schedules and things like that.

How did you first get involved with BCS?

AV: I started ten years ago, I came in as a sub paraprofessional here at PS 21. I heard about the after-school program hiring and so I spoke to the site director and asked if there were any positions available and she said there were and asked me to apply. I came on board in the Summer of 2014. From there, I went from being an assistant teacher to being a teacher to being an assistant director. After that, I was interim director, nine different times. I’m glad to say that BCS has offered me the position of director here and two other sites. You see, it’s not just a job, it’s just something that I love to do.

Do you have a favorite part of your job?

AV: My favorite part is having the students come back and seeing them want to volunteer and then also work with us. I love when they come back and say, “Mr. Vivar, are you still with BCS?” They see the teachers and they are excited that we’re still here, we’re still part of the community. I went to this school as a kid so I love being able to give back to the school I went to.

Do you have any specific memories from the program that you want to share?

AV: I think the most amazing thing is the Culminating Event that we have. This event lets the students share all the work that they’ve been doing throughout the year. The parents come in and just kind of pack the auditorium and it’s amazing. I love that.

Is there a challenging aspect of your job or something you’ve had to work through?

AV: I think the biggest challenge has always been making sure we have the appropriate amount of staff on site.

Why do you think this program is important to this specific community?

AV: At one point, this was actually one of the only programs that PS 21 had. The school has always been overpopulated, we’ve had up to 800 students. Our program has only been able to accommodate 140 on average. In past years, we’ve had parents petition to up our numbers, we’ve had principals and other staff try to support us with that, because like I said, we were the only program at that point. I remember doing enrollments on Saturdays for summer or even just regular programming and the line would be outside at six in the morning. It showed that we were needed in the community.

Is there something you’re looking forward to that’s coming up in your program?

AV: Like I said, the culminating events, and all the performances, are always the best because I love that the kids are able to show what they’ve been doing in the classrooms. I’m also excited for the new kids that will be coming in for the summer, and also the new kids that are coming in from pre-K. It’s always exciting because you get to introduce yourself to the new families and you are now going to be with these kids for the next five years.

Is there anything else you want to share about your program about your position?

AV: The program has grown a lot as far as the teaching aspect of it. Before, we just did little small arts and crafts and now we have a hallway full of displays. I started putting up work and it kind of just stuck. Now we use the whole hallway as a display to show our work. We’re not here as a babysitting service, we produce work, we have an engaging curriculum, we do exciting things at BCS.

Can you explain this year’s specific curriculum?

AV: Our curriculum this year is “Brooklyn and the Boroughs.” During Black History Month, they had to choose someone from Black History who lived in Brooklyn to research. Then they also picked someone from Manhattan, and all the other boroughs so they could explore. They’re also exploring the transportation, they’re exploring the music, they’re exploring the culture of every borough. We’re focusing on Brooklyn, because we’re from Brooklyn.

Anything else?

AV: I mean, other than that, like I said, I just hope to grow and see what happens with BCS for the next twenty-four years that I have left until retirement. So I hope to stick around that long.

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Maribel Mercado, Assistant Teacher

Can you tell me your name and your position here?

Maribel Mercado: My name is Maribel Mercado and I’m an assistant teacher here at BCS at PS 21. I’ve been here for thirteen years.

Can you tell me a little about your role and what you do day to day?

MM: Usually I come in, I set up everything, all the paperwork for attendance and dismissal. Then I go pick up the children from their classroom and bring them down to supper. Then I help with the transition to the classrooms so they can start their homework for the academic portion of our day. Then we start projects and I hang them up when we’re done to make everything pretty.

How did you first get involved with BCS?

MM: I used to volunteer back when I was like fifteen or sixteen at my mom’s site which is PS 306 [Jets Academy]. That’s how I first got familiar with BCS.

What is your favorite part of your job?

MM: Oh, the kids. Definitely the kids. The kids make me laugh every day. There’s not a day that goes by that these kids don’t put a smile on my face.

Kayla Boyd: She also remembers every parent or person that picks up every child by face.

Teacher 1: She knows who they’re here for. All 140 of them. Me? Unless your kid looks exactly like you I have no idea.

MM: Yeah I actually think dismissal is one of my favorite parts of the day because I get to talk to parents and kids. I get to know that the kids are safe and they’ve been taken care of.

Do you have any specific memories you’d want to share? Or any stories?

MM: Every day that I come into this building I get a thousand hugs and a thousand “hellos!” To the children, my name is “Ms. Avocado.” All you hear during BCS time is, “Ms. Avocado!” Some of the kids have taken on that name and they let me call them “avocados” when it’s time for dismissal. A big part of my day is just connecting with the kids and finding little ways to make everyone feel included.

What are you looking forward to in the program? Anything specific?

MM: I’m looking forward to the showcase we’re about to have because they’re gonna be so good. The kids practice so hard and they love what they do.

What is this showcase? What will the kids be doing?

MM: They do dances and poetry and just talk about what they’ve learned this year. They create this whole program to teach others what they’ve learned. They get to be the teachers on that day.

Anything else you want to say?

MM: It’s just been a pleasure working with BCS. I’ve been here for so long and I don’t want to leave. I’m usually the first one here and the last one to leave every day.