AFTER-SCHOOL SPECIAL

The slender, dark-haired woman sat elbow-to-elbow with a handful of Latino youngsters at Santa Ana’s Madison Elementary School, patiently helping them with their homework as she has most every Thursday evening for nine years.

They didn’t seem to mind having their grammar corrected ever so gently by the elegant, well-spoken tutor, who looked more “like a contessa” than a judge in her tailored tan suit, according to Madison principal Marti Baker.

But Superior Court Judge Frances Munoz was all business as she handed out an article describing how to write a research paper. When she heard several of the students talk about their struggles with science projects, she recommended a trip to the public library.

Munoz asked if their parents could help them with their projects. “My parents don’t speak English,” one girl responded. “They don’t understand science projects.”

Munoz knows the answer all too well, which is the reason she trades in her judge’s bench for the hard plastic chair in Madison’s media center virtually every week after a full day of dealing with miscreants of all stripes in her Newport Beach courtroom.

“If we didn’t do this, what would happen to the children?” asked Munoz, one of 11 children born to a Mexican coal miner who immigrated to Colorado, then settled in California.

Madison Elementary, in the heart of a tough Santa Ana neighborhood, is troubled by gangs and crime, which is one reason Munoz chose it to launch her Extended Education for Excellence program in 1989. To help children in need, particular Latinos, who have a significantly higher-than-average dropout rate, she wanted to create a one-hour program.

Each week, she and four or five other adults tutor about 50 students. The program is aimed at elementary school children, but Munoz lets some who have moved on to junior high school continue their Thursday sessions.

All the volunteers do more than help the students with their homework once a week. They’ve taken the kids to local museums, to tide pools in Dana Point, to an Anaheim Angels game and a symphony concert at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Every December, the tutors stage a Christmas party with small presents for all of the children and food donated by Taco Bell.

“These students don’t have all of the opportunities the average child has,” Munoz explained. “We try to make up for that. We do things they normally don’t do.”

At least once a year, the judge brings the students to her courtroom, where she stages a mock trial of Goldilocks. The children assume the roles of the jury members, lawyers, witnesses, wronged bears and the accused.

“They always find poor Goldilocks guilty,” she said.

Watching the tutors in action, it’s clear that everyone--even the stately judge--is having fun.

“Judge! Judge!” the four girls and one boy exclaimed excitedly, each vying for her attention.

Before the hour was up, the students recounted one of their favorite adventures, when the judge took them to tide pools in Dana Point and Munoz got knocked over by a wave.

“You know, I really don’t remember that. Are you sure that happened?” said the Corona del Mar resident.

They are sure.

“She can remember everything but that,” one girl said knowingly.

The judge laughed.

“Do you see why I come every Thursday? I’d miss them if I didn’t,” she said.

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Hers is not a formal tutoring program that follows specific learning requirements or keeps records of students’ progress. The tutors take a more relaxed approach, working with kids on educational trouble spots, but also devoting part of every session to crafts or games.

“The students are a little rowdy, so we try to make it fun,” Munoz said, as three girls in her group proudly demonstrated the splits they’ve been practicing for an upcoming cheerleader competition.

“They sense the tutors are here because they really like them and their self-esteem goes up, and that transfers to their grades. What’s most important is that somebody cares,” she said.

One sign that the program is working: Volunteers have seen many students go from failing in school to making good grades.

“It helps me do my work,” said Lauro Nevarec, a sixth-grader who has turned his Cs into A’s and Bs. “And we learn not to say bad words.”

The program provides an escape from possible pressures at home and a refuge from the gangs on the streets.

“One boy had all the earmarks of getting involved in gangs, and when I see him now I can’t imagine it,” Munoz said. “We had to kick him out of the program several times, but he kept coming back.”

His tutor, Joyce Appleby, figured the boy’s disruptive behavior was due to an excess of energy, which she channeled into art.

“Now he thinks he’s an artist,” Munoz said. “He was getting Fs, and now he gets A’s and Bs.”

Still, one need not look at their report cards to see how children who have been in the program for a while gain confidence. Newcomers tend to speak softly, avoiding the gaze of others. The veterans are much more talkative and animated. They’re more like Karen Gonzalez, a seventh-grader with dark hair that falls to her waist who loves to regale visitors with tales about the judge.

“Before I came to tutoring, I didn’t know how to spell. There were big words I didn’t understand, but the judge helped me study. We practiced and practiced, and I got 100% on my spelling test,” Karen said. “I’ve improved a lot.”

Some students have been attending the program for years, since they were in the second grade.

“We thought the junior high students would be too grown up, but they’re not. They keep coming until we tell them they can’t anymore,” Munoz said. “It gives them a place.”

Patty Lucero, 15, has been coming since she was in sixth grade. Now a ninth-grader at Century High School in Santa Ana, Patty didn’t want to leave the program, so this year she became a tutor:

“I think it’s fun. At my house, I don’t do anything,” she said. “When I grow up I want to be a teacher.”

The program has proved so popular that many students have to be turned away because there aren’t enough tutors, the judge said.

“If we got more people in the community involved, these students would not drop out,” said Munoz, who notes that the Orange County Department of Education reported a 62.7% dropout rate among Hispanic students at public schools countywide for the 1995-96 school year.

Don Ashcraft, an employee with Southern California Edison, has been tutoring at Madison for four years. “It was kind of on my way home,” joked the Mission Viejo resident. “And I like teaching the kids.”

So far, the program has operated without funding, except for the occasional donation of theater tickets or book bags from private individuals or corporations. Munoz sometimes goes to garage sales in search of books and other prizes, which students receive in exchange for a perfect attendance record or other achievement.

Munoz dreams of expanding the program to serve 150 to 350 children and to set up a model that could be duplicated at other schools.

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One possible way to bolster the program would be to bring it under the umbrella of THINK Together (for Teaching, Helping, Instructing Kids), a nonprofit agency dedicated to creating after-school programs throughout Orange County with the financial support of private, corporate and religious groups.

The judge serves on the board of THINK, which last year kicked off the Noah Project, an after-school program at St. Joseph Catholic Church and the Episcopal Church of the Messiah in downtown Santa Ana.

THINK recently opened the Highland Street Learning Center in Orange and a center at Wallace R. Davis Elementary School in Santa Ana.

“In many ways [Munoz] was a pioneer in after-school programs,” said Randy Barth, chairman of THINK Together. “She’s been a lonely voice in the wilderness for a long time,”

Her dedication to the children has not gone unnoticed, despite her efforts to avoid the limelight.

“She understood before a lot of other people that to help kids in the barrio, it will take extra learning time and people who care,” Madison principal Baker said.

Munoz hates to talk about herself or her behind-the-scenes efforts to help kids. Her fellow volunteers, however, marvel at her dedication.

“She puts so much of her time and a lot of money into this,” said Debbi Cyrkin, a volunteer from Costa Mesa. “We’ve had periods where we’ve hardly had any tutors, but she’s always there.”

Added Superior Court Judge David O. Carter, who worked for many years with Munoz at Harbor Court and does considerable outreach work with children himself: “Judge Munoz is just a very kind, caring person who devotes a lot of her time and resources to helping kids.”

Munoz--a graduate of Southwestern University in Los Angeles who has served 20 years as a judge--credits family support for her own success.

“We all worked together,” she said of her family. “Today, there’s so much breakdown in families. I think children are missing out. That’s why they seek the street.”

Munoz also is a co-founder of the Hispanic Education Endowment Fund, which raises money for scholarships for Latino students.

Her broader goal remains to “get the rest of the world to catch on and focus on children.”

“My philosophy is that you need to get involved with kids at the earliest possible time. Otherwise they lose hope and drop out,” she said.

She especially wants to see them dream big.

When, for example, Munoz asked Karen Gonzalez what she wants to be when she grows up, the seventh-grader responded: “I want to be the first woman president or a scientist.”

She considered the question a minute more and added: “Or a judge.”

To volunteer with the after-school learning program at Madison Elementary School call (714) 558-5836. To contact THINK Together, call (714) 543-1715.