Parents of kindergarten to high school students swarmed Madera South High School for a Lights On Afterschool celebration Friday night to find out what their children do in after school programs.
Lights On Afterschool is a nationwide effort to highlight the importance of after school programs. Madera Unified School District, California Teaching Fellows Foundation and SoluNet, an after-school program organization, held the Friday celebration, the city’s third.
Often, students could only tell their parents what they were doing during after school but not show them, said Martin Suarez, SoluNet executive director.
“A lot of parents are working and when they pick up their kids from school, the kids may say, ‘Oh, I’ve been dancing, I’ve been doing Lego robotics.’” Suarez said. “But parents have never seen what their kids are actually doing. So today’s a showcase for the kids to show what they really do.” ...