MAGNOLIA, Del.- After school activities can be an important part of the high school experience for students. But when a student lives far away from the school he or she attends, participating can be a challenge.
One Kent County school has found a solution for that problem - taking the "after" out of "after school activities." Starting this year, kids at St. Thomas More Academy spend the last hour of every Wednesday in extracurriculars.
Senior Salina Masone benefits from the new program. She needs time outside of class for her art projects, but she lives in Rehoboth and takes the bus to and from school. It's a 45-minute ride each way.
"Teachers stay after school," she said. "I would be able to stay after or even come in a little early. But I don't live near enough to do that."
St. Thomas More is regionally-based with students coming from as far away as Salisbury. Principal Fr. James said the distance can make it hard for some students to do extracurriculars.
"This is how we've chosen to address the problem," he said. "We have activity period once a week to allow them to be in any activity they want. And that takes place during the last period of the school day."
He said the program is good for students' present and future.
"That ability to have students have that extracurricular experience to benefit them as they go to college and out into the world," says Lentini. "That certainly was an important factor in deciding to try this."
Fr. Lentini says activity days of Wednesday started as pilot program last year before becoming an every week event this year. And he says while it is not a new idea for regionally-based schools nationwide, he thinks it's a first for Delmarva.
