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Arts & Entertainment

From Art to Ballroom Dancing, OASIS Program Offers Plenty to Local Students

The program provides cultural and academic enrichment to elementary school children.

As many school districts grapple with decreases in state aid and a difficult economic climate, several programs—and even jobs—may be eliminated.

In Port Chester, the school board has discussed a few budget scenarios, which could raise the tax levy by either 2 or 6.35 percent.

While some programs in the school district could be faced with funding cuts, one of them—the 21st Century OASIS Program—will continue providing cultural and academic enrichment to students thanks to federal funding.

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OASIS, which has provided Port Chester elementary school students with a combined education in art, academics and even ballroom dancing every day after school , will not disappear anytime soon, according to Kathleen Sutherland, the program’s director.

“It’s great for kids of working parents. They have a chance to get their homework done—especially if a parent isn’t able to help,” Sutherland said.

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Port Chester Council for the Arts, Clay Art Center, Open Door Medical Center, and the non-profit organization Dancing Classrooms are just some of the supporters who lend their services to the program.

The program also benefits from a federal grant that awards it $900,000 in annual funding, which is shared among King Street School, Edison School, Park Avenue School and John F. Kennedy Magnet School.

The students who take part in the program enjoy it because they get to socialize.

“[Coming to OASIS] is better than going home after school because you can be with your friends here,” said fourth grader Jonathan Alvarez.

Local teachers also enjoy teaching students as part of the after school enrichment program.

Krista DiBernardo, a fourth grade teacher at JFK Magnet, has used a hands-on approach to give students an art lesson about clay.

Students learned how to fire the kiln and hand-build in DiBernardo’s class and are able to put that knowledge to use by working with local artists.

“My kids were so excited about having to prepare their clay projects. They were waiting in anticipation to see how they would come out,” DiBernado said.

One of the students participating in OASIS certainly agreed.

"I like to play games after school, and art is fun because I like getting dirty," said JFK fourth grader, Denisse Briseno.

The program doesn’t cost parents any money because OASIS leverages local partnerships and relationships with vendors to provide programming for the students.

In addition to clay projects, students also take part in Dancing Classrooms’ ballroom lessons and physical activities such as yoga and a fun game of “Steal the Bacon” in the gym.

The program is as varied as possible in order to keep students engaged in all OASIS has to offer.

"The sky's the limit for the kinds of things we can do here," said site-coordinator, Philip Mutino.

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