Seniors Star as Tutors in Conejo Classrooms

When 7-year-old Randy Cabrera looked up from his math paper, 79-year-old Mort Bernard shook his head.

So the Conejo Elementary School second-grader wiped out his answer with an orange eraser and did it over. “Yeah!” Bernard told the boy. “I knew you knew how to do it.”

Bernard and his wife Marilyn, 71, have been volunteering at Conejo Elementary School in Thousand Oaks for the last three years. Every Thursday, they come into Nancy Nevitt’s second-grade classroom and help students with schoolwork.

“They are my right arm,” Nevitt said. “They give the students confidence. And the more confidence the kids have, the more they are going to learn.”

Along with about 80 seniors, the Bernards are volunteers with Seniors Teaching and Reaching Students, run by the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. Each year, the seniors work with about 1,600 children in the Conejo Valley on reading, writing, math and the English language. They tutor students one-on-one and work with small groups.

But the program, now in its fifth year, is at a financial crossroads. Additional funding is needed to keep the volunteers in the classroom and to recruit more seniors, organizers said.

The program is trying to raise $13,000 to fund a part-time volunteer coordinator who would recruit, place and monitor the seniors, Conejo Valley RSVP project director Louise Danielle said. The volunteer program now runs on about $10,000, which covers advertising, supplies, background checks and insurance. Danielle said she is looking for state grants and private donations, but is concerned about finding enough money.

“We’re just struggling along, so we’ll take anything,” she said. “It’s difficult to get funding, but there’s such a need.”

The program targets schools with lower Stanford 9 scores, organizers said. Currently, seniors volunteer at Manzanita, Park Oaks, Conejo, Madrona, Walnut and Glenwood elementary schools.

Teachers say the program boosts student achievement and improves the youths’ self-esteem. Though the volunteers work with all students, they try to focus on those struggling in school. The extra attention and encouragement they receive make all the difference, educators say.

“If people are telling kids they are doing a good job, they are going to do a better job,” said Pamela Chasse, principal of Glenwood Elementary School. “We have some wonderful seniors over here. We don’t want to see it fade out. In fact, we want to see more here.”

About 10 seniors visit Glenwood every week. One teaches art to special education students. Another works in the after-school homework center.

Educators also say the program encourages the children to develop intergenerational bonds. Chasse and others said the seniors become the adopted grandparents of the classrooms. They bring them treats, such as cookies, pencils and stickers. They don’t discipline them. And they love them unconditionally.

“We have a lot of kids who come from single-family homes, and to have these other relationships and to find other people to care about them is important,” Chasse said.

Andrea Ackmann, a teacher at Park Oaks Elementary School, agreed. “Some kids don’t have grandparents in the area or don’t have grandparents at all,” she said. “So this kind of gives them another role model.”

When Nevitt’s students returned from recess and saw the Bernards there, several ran up to them and hugged them. Marilyn Bernard, a retired legal secretary, said she wouldn’t miss her time at the school for anything.

During class, she read a story with Leticia Candelario, 7, who wore a teddy bear T-shirt and had her hair pulled back in pigtails.

“What happened at the beginning of the story?” Bernard asked afterward.

“They got a flat tire,” Leticia answered quietly. “And the other tire went down the hill.”

“Very, very good. You’re reading so well,” Bernard said, as she gave the girl a hug.

In addition to benefiting the children, the volunteer program helps the seniors by giving them a sense of purpose and bringing young people into their lives.

Shirley Rollins, 67, a retired receptionist, spends every Tuesday morning in a first-grade class at Park Oaks. After volunteering at a hospital and a library, Rollins found the perfect match at the elementary school.

On a recent morning, she taught children how to do patterns by making macaroni necklaces. And one-by-one, she helped several students with the alphabet.

“I love children and I love to read,” she said. “And I thought I could help the littler ones get interested in reading.”

Rollins said she enjoys seeing the children’s eyes light up when she enters the room. “I get as much out of them as anything I can give,” Rollins said. “I just enjoy the children, because they are so giving.”

For more information about Seniors Teaching and Reaching Students, call 381-2742.