Four new murals celebrate success of Delaware Academy Extended School Day Program

Four new murals celebrate successof Delaware Academy Extended School Day ProgramDecember 20, 2005Patrick Farrellpmfarrel@syr.edu

Delaware Academy, a k-5 elementary school in the Syracuse City School District, celebrated another successful year of its Extended School Day (ESD) program with the unveiling Dec. 21 of four new murals near the school’s library. The murals were designed and painted by students in Henninger High School’s Art Focus program, with the active participation of Delaware ESD students. SU School of Education graduate students who work in the ESD Program at Delaware provided additional guidance and assistance for the project.

The murals are among the latest accomplishments of Delaware’s Extended School Day Program, which uses art to improve the students’ academic skills. The program is a partnership of School of Education staff and graduate students, and students, faculty and staff from Delaware Academy and Henninger High School.

Henninger librarian and Art Focus facilitator Linda Labella-Morgen brainstormed with the Henninger artists to come up with four themes for the murals: fantasy world, science-fiction, children’s literature and fairy tales. Each mural includes a painting of a Delaware student interacting with the fictional characters.

The murals form the centerpiece of this year’s program, which was planned and organized by SU onsite coordinator Ralph Bova. “This is a program of enrichment that focuses on having students engage in activities that center on thearts,” says Bova. “By using music, dance, creative writing and painting, the program helps students learn to listen to directions, follow through on those directions and apply the skills they have learned to successfully achieve their goals.”

A major strand of the ESD program is based on “Skillstreaming,” a prosocial skills training model developed by Arnold P. Goldstein, a former School of Education faculty member. This year, Bova designed a “block” schedule for Henninger student artists to give more time to individual Delaware students in support of developing skills needed to complete assignments.

For the past six years, the Delaware program has been funded by the New York State Extended School Day/School Violence Prevention Program grant written by Sandy Trento, director of continuing education and global outreach at the School of Education. Trento also is the director of the Delaware ESD program. The grant requires that students be involved in tutorial sessions and enrichment activities, the other two major ESD strands.