The library has been open an extra hour from 3:30-4:30 p.m. since Nov. 28 for Homework Club, a time students can study, get tutored or have internet access. Librarians will still be available after school for regular book check out, but until 4:30, students will be able to print or use Chromebooks and textbooks.

Assistant principal Mrs. Jennifer Hanks got the idea from her oldest son, who attends Granite Oaks Middle School’s math lab.

“Their library is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, for an hour after school and some of our kids and Rocklin’s kids go down to tutor, but it was just for math support. So I thought, ‘What if we had something here after school? I bet there would be kids who maybe just need a quiet place to do homework, maybe they need some help, maybe they need access to wifi, chromebooks.’ I brought the idea to Mr. [Justin] Cutts and it took this long to find a funding source to pay for teachers to be there, to get teachers to run it, and here we are,” Hanks said.

Currently, every Tuesday there is a social studies teacher in attendance and every Wednesday there’s a math teacher. On Thursdays and Fridays, a counselor is available to help.

“That was my starting point because I wanted to see if the kids come, and if the kids come, what they come for, what do they need help with. We’re gonna grow this as we see the need since I can’t foresee what the needs of the kids will be. So if they’re all coming for Spanish, I’m going to see if I can get a Spanish teacher,” Hanks said.

The first day of Homework Club Nov. 28 19 students attended under the supervision of Mr. Jason Knowles.

“I decided to help because I ran a similar program at my previous school, Rodriguez High in Fairfield, and it bore really good fruit in terms of helping students pass their classes. I also hope it encourages students to use each other as a resource for understanding course curriculum. Sometimes, they can explain things better to their peers than the teacher. My goal is to be there every Tuesday as the designated social science point person,” Knowles said.

There is hope the program with expand with more subjects in the future.

“Ms. [Meredith] Kane said she would be the language arts teacher, but she’s in the middle of coaching basketball, so we’ve got to wait. But she is going to do Thursdays. I would love for science to do Fridays but people have to be available and want to do it,” Hanks said.

Hanks is currently searching for students who are willing to commit to being peer tutors for any subject in exchange for community service hours.

by DANICA TRAN