District Urged to Continue KEY Project

By Brian Argabright
brian.argabright@delrionewsherald.com
Staff Writer, Del Rio News-Herald

Reprinted with permission of the Del Rio News-Herald
Published August 25, 2005

Three area organizations want to continue an ongoing educational relationship with the local public school district.

The Amistad National Recreation Area, the Shumla School, and Seminole Canyon State Park want the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District to continue utilizing the KEY Project to provide services to students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades.

KEY, or Knowledge Enriching Youth, provides educational opportunities to students outside the classroom and in different learning settings.

Lisa Evans, education specialist at the Amistad National Recreation Area, explained that the KEY Project would allow the three organizations to work with different grade levels each year and enrich their learning experiences through hands-on activities and interdisciplinary studies.

Fourth graders would work with the Shumla School, located about 50 miles west of Del Rio.

Through activities such as the annual archeology fair held on the grounds of the Whitehead Memorial Museum and a Pecos River Kids Day Camp, students would learn about the area around Val Verde County and how life in the past can be used to teach science lessons of today.

Fifth graders would work with the Amistad National Recreation Area.

They would take part in field lab activities and travel around Lake Amistad as part of an educational houseboat trip provided by Forever Resorts.

According to Evans, the houseboat trips have served almost 5,000 kids in the past five years.

Sixth graders would utilize Seminole Canyon State Park through an educational field trip as well as various hands on activities.

"These activities will incorporate science, math, literature and more. It's not just about social studies and history," said Evans.

"These three organizations will also be sharing staff and personnel to ensure all activities are covered. The plan is also for the organizations to share equipment and resources."

Dr. Carolyn Boyd, executive director of the Shumla School, said the organizations are not seeking any funds from the school district to help the KEY Project. All they are asking for is support from the district.

"This is an exciting opportunity for us to be a part of these kids' lives. We're not asking for the school to pay for anything. We do our own fund raising, and the state parks are funded. We're just asking for your support to participate. We're asking that you bring your kids to the activities we have for them," said Boyd, who added that the Shumla School had hosted about 1,000 kids in the past year. "We're here for you and we want everyone to understand we're here to help and want you to utilize us as much as possible because that's what we're here for."

School Board President Dr. Antonio Cadena Jr. said he had visited one of the programs with one of his children and that he learned a lot from the experience.