WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach is offering free tutoring for students grades K-12 through its Homework Center.
"Everything is test, test, test, if you don’t pass the test you don’t go to the next grade so that’s always like my fear," said Kalivia King with a third- and fourth-grader.
She said the free tutoring is saving her upwards of $300 a month in private tutoring, that she hopes to use for groceries and other bills.
“Families are hurting big time and honestly this year if I had to come out of pocket for tutoring, I wouldn’t be able to afford it,” King said.
Last school year the Homework Center helped 556 students through tutoring and 34,293 since it launched in 2011.
Fifteen percent of children in the Palm Beach County School District are below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census said.
“Every child deserves the chance to succeed academically, and a lot of kids need extra academic help to do that, and it shouldn't be if you can afford a tutor," Kathy Hage, the youth services manager at the Mandel Public Library, said.
Homework Center is supported by the West Palm Beach Library Foundation, which allows the service to be free.
“A child can come in and stay for 20 minutes, stay for an hour stay for whatever length of time they need,” Hage said.
“With the whole COVID setback I think that we’ve seen even in schools that kids are below grade level,” Stacey Rowe, a certified teacher with the Homework Center, said.
The library welcomes families with no questions asked, and certified teachers help with anything from homework, projects to testprep.
They also provide free nourishing snacks to students.
"We've seen children grow as readers, we've seen children come in and understand a math concept that they didn't understand before, bring in a test that they're super proud of. We've seen kids confidence build," said Hage. "It's really rewarding to get to see kids grow and develop and become the people that they're going to be on the other side."
The help doesn't stop at the library. Homework Center has a mobile unit.
It goes to Fogleman Park and Sullivan Park in West Palm Beach with a certified teacher and library members to help families that can't make it to the library for tutoring.
Fogleman Park tutoring is Tuesday & Thursday afternoons.
Sullivan Park tutoring on Wednesday afternoons.
Mandel Mobile provides on-site broadband access as well as laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots.
"We can only hope that with what we're helping them with now is the building blocks to their successful future so that we can all have a better life in the end," Rowe said.
