Learning Doesn’t End After Last Bell : There’s a waiting list for Anaheim Hills Elementary School’s extra-curricular classes in science, Spanish and art.

At Anaheim Hills Elementary School, kids are trooping to the principal’s office and asking to stay after school.

“They’re beating my door down,” says Principal Jim Luft.

So far, nearly 100 pupils have signed up for three new after-school classes and dozens of others have added their names to a growing waiting list.

The new program, which offers classes in science, art and beginning Spanish, is strictly voluntary and is designed to enrich the regular school curriculum. “We started it last year with science, and it was such a success that we decided to expand it this year,” Luft says.

After conducting a survey, the school discovered that parents and pupils were interested in art and Spanish. The school added after-school classes in those subjects this year.

“We wanted to give the kids a little more exposure to some of the things they can’t get in the classroom because of time constraints,” he says. “With the science program, they get a lot of hands-on activities, and with the Spanish, it is beneficial for everyone to know a little bit of Spanish.”

The science class is presented by the Fullerton Arboretum at Cal State Fullerton through its Science Adventure Club. The Spanish class is taught by a bilingual teacher at Anaheim Hills, and the art class is taught by an artist from the community. The cost of the program is $45 per pupil for science and $35 for Spanish and art.

“We’ve tried to keep the cost low,” Luft says. “The school doesn’t make any money off it--the money goes to pay the people who teach it and for materials.”

Classes meet once a week and are divided into two age groups. Kids in first through third grades attend one class; pupils in grades four through six are enrolled in a joint session.

“The ages can be mixed, and it works well,” Luft says. “The Spanish class is all conversational, and it doesn’t matter how old the child is. Art and science are taught the same way.”

Each course runs for six weeks. The Spanish and art classes will be offered four times a year, while the science program is offered five times beginning in September and continuing through June. Science topics to be covered are “Electric Magic,” “Earth Explorers,” “Future World,” “Motion Made Simple” and “Insects.”

“The kids love it,” Luft says. “The waiting list speaks for itself. All the classes are filled. Some kids signed up for all three classes.”

The success of the program is due to a tremendous amount of community interest in education, Luft says.

“This community really places a value on education, and the kids here are very eager to learn. Parents want them to learn as much as they can. Families here take their kids to museums, and they travel a lot,” he says.

Teachers at Anaheim Hills also have welcomed the opportunity to have the extra classes, Luft says. One of the program’s biggest supporters is Barbara Colson, who teaches the Spanish class. Colson, who teaches second grade, lived in Spain for five years and says she tries to teach the kids something about Spanish culture as well as language.

“There’s always some element of culture in our classes, and there’s always some conversation,” she says. “It’s a great opportunity for them to learn at a young age to appreciate different cultures, and with the little ones they have no inhibitions. What I say they try to say, and they just laugh at mispronunciations. They like the conversation, and I hear them using their Spanish on the playground. They feel so smart and special.”

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Colson’s pupils meet in her classroom and sit on the floor on a colorful Mexican blanket as they practice Spanish phrases in an informal atmosphere designed to make learning fun. “They really thrive on it; they enjoy it,” Colson says. “And they learn a lot.”

Karen Roach’s son, Andrew, 9, and daughter, Becky, 10, are both in Colson’s class. Roach, who speaks no Spanish, says her children already have learned so much Spanish that they are translating for her.

“I am learning from them,” Roach says. “They can do introductions; they can count in Spanish, and they can say simple, everyday phrases that are very helpful. I think it is really good for them because in Southern California you really need to know a little Spanish, but they had had no exposure until they started this class.”

Overall, Roach believes that the idea for an after-school program is good as long as the children remain enthusiastic.

“Both of my children came to me and asked me if they could go,” she said. “They think it is a fun thing. One day I told them that I didn’t think they could make the class because I couldn’t pick them up that day, and they cried and said, ‘Mommy, I want to go to class.’ So I had to get someone else to pick them up after school.”

Roach credits Colson with keeping the children motivated to learn. “She makes it a fun class. The kids really participate. It is not like school; it’s more like a get-together, more like a club than a class.”

Because of the response to the program, Luft says he hopes to expand it. “We’d like to offer something in computers and music,” he says. “So we might see it grow over the years.”

The success of an after-school program depends a lot upon the community in which it is offered, Luft says. What works at one school may not work at another.

To principals who are thinking of setting up such programs, Luft says: “It is a very easy program to run once you find the people to do the teaching. Finding the people is the hard part. Then, ideally, you have to limit class size. We limit ours to 15 per class to make it more manageable. And you have to keep the fees low.”