Program Rewards Good Grades : Pasadena: The goal is to motivate neighborhood children and teen-agers to do better in school by recognizing their achievements.

By the time Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole finished talking to the 15 schoolchildren packed into a tidy house on the north end of Navarro Street, two things were clear: These wide-eyed youngsters don’t lack for ideas, and a hotdog barbecue might be one way to end interminable council meetings.

Cole spent a good part of a recent Saturday morning discussing the ups and downs of being mayor with youths participating in the Navarro Avenue-Tremont-Howard Assn. (NATHA) Scholastic Achievement Program.

Cole told the youths, ages 8 to 18, that one of the ups is that he can help improve the city he loves. On the downside, he said, he only earns $4,000 a year--not the $1 million one young boy guessed a mayor brings home.

In return for his time, the children gave the mayor an earful of ideas for bettering Pasadena. Among them were giving unwanted appliances to the homeless and electing the mayor by popular vote. Only the smell of charcoal-broiled hotdogs kept the youths from staging a referendum on the latter issue.

The barbecue was a light finish to a gathering with a serious purpose.

The career presentation--a regular part of the NATHA meetings held at the home of Joseph Rodriguez and Sonya Hildreth-Rodriguez--are aimed at steering young people away from the streets by encouraging academic achievement and introducing vocational options.

The NATHA program is the brainchild of a crime watch group turned neighborhood association. It is being praised locally as a model of community activism.

The program seeks to motivate neighborhood children and teen-agers to do better in school by rewarding their achievements.

Those who stay enrolled and maintain a “C” average or better get to go to Magic Mountain at the end of the school year. Those who earn a 3.4 grade point average, or boost their grades two points, will spend a week in August in Washington.

In addition to providing these incentives, program organizers identify tutoring needs by monitoring report cards and talking to teachers, then directing students to nearby programs. At last count, 23 of the 38 youths who started the program had stuck with it.

“This kind of grass-roots self-help is really much better than the government programs of the past,” Cole said after the meeting he attended. He said the NATHA program is an example of--and model for--a growing neighborhood movement in Pasadena.

“This is the most positive thing that is happening, parents not waiting for programs to solve their problems. This neighborhood recognized that their problem was that the kids needed help,” he said.

The Navarro Avenue block between Tremont and Howard streets started a crime watch last year because rampant drug-selling was attracting crime and violence to their street, according to frustrated residents. Soon, organizers focused on helping youths in the neighborhood even though most of their own children were grown.

NATHA member Ted Smith said that during one of the crime watch meetings, treasurer Betty Coleman suggested that in addition to monitoring crime on the street, the group should do something for the children.

Smith proposed paying the youths to get good grades, and Harry Washington, also active in the crime watch, suggested a trip to Washington.

From there, Smith said, “it snowballed.”

The crime watch group, led by Coleman, Washington, Smith and the Rodriguezes, formed the neighborhood association a year ago and recruited youths to help design and participate in NATHA’s scholastic program. The city helped with a $5,000 grant, and the experiment kicked off this school year.

Coleman said that even though many of the organizers do not have children in the program, their motivation is simple.

“It seems like kids are losing out on so much because of crime,” Coleman said. “You get tired of seeing them die. This is really important to them because you know they can do it.”

NATHA hopes to improve the program next year by working more closely with the school system, reaching out to more at-risk youths and providing counseling as well as tutorial services.

“We are trying,” said Hildreth-Rodriguez, NATHA’s president. “We are all amateurs. But, hopefully, we can learn from our mistakes and build.”

The Rodriguezes said one of the biggest challenges will be finding funds to expand the program. NATHA is applying to a number of foundations for support.