Kingfisher Public School’s STARS project, the before- and after-school and summertime enrichment program that has received statewide recognition, has been refunded for a third consecutive five-year cycle.

STARS, an acronymn for Students Together Achieve Remarkable Success, is the brain child of KPS employees Dawn Tollefson and Sheila Redwine, who wrote the first successful grant application as well as the two subsequent applications for renewed funding.

The most recent grant totals $1,359,300 through the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers, a federally-funded program administered by the state Department of Education.

In its first 10 years, Kingfisher’s program for third through eighth graders has included math and reading tutoring and enrichment programs in STEM skills, art, music, character education and leadership, and early college and career exploration.

Counseling also is available, along with social-emotional learning, healthy lifestyles and substance abuse prevention.

The program also expanded to include evening programs for the whole family, such as literacy events, math-reading game nights and STEM programs.

All of that is served up with meals, snacks, field trips and fun interaction with community partners so that this program designed to build on classroom skills feels as “unclassroom like” as possible, Tollefson said.

On top of that, STARS provides a safe before- and after-school environment for working parents looking for an alternative to “latch-key” kids going home to an empty house until parents get off work.

“It’s a safe place for kids to go for parents who don’t get off work until 5 p.m. and the bonus is they are learning the whole time they are there,” Tollefson, the district’s financial director, said.

While it feels like fun to students, the program is heavily data driven and Redwine and Tollefson spend hours identifying gaps in test scores and then tweaking the STARS curriculum to plug those holes. “More than anything

“More than anything else, it’s thinking outside the box on the learning side,” she said. “We do a lot of research to see what’s out there and also what’s available in our community.”

During the pandemic, when STARS was closed along with regular classrooms, thinking outside the box meant providing “grab-and-go” project packages for students to do at home.

Students and parents haven’t been the only direct beneficiaries.

Grant funding has meant extra income for the 25-35 staff members, including teachers, support staff and student tutors, who make the program possible.

“The funding is wonderful and that’s what allows us to do what we could do with all these different programs,” co-director and retired classroom teacher Lou Barrick said.

“We have a dedicated staff, some of whom have been with us nine or 10 years, who teach all day and then come do this until 5 or 5:15 p.m.,” she said.

“Other districts have had trouble getting staffing for after school and summer programs, but we’ve been fortunate there.”

Barrick herself, along with co-director Terry Willis, has guided the program since its inception. She said besides the

She said besides the dedicated staff, the community’s buy-in and support of the program has been instrumental to its success.

“We had a great field trip to Chisholm Trail Museum this year and (museum director) Jason Harris met us at the door dressed as a cowboy,” she said. “Kids got to ask ques

“Kids got to ask questions and visit the pioneer village buildings and buy old time candy and sarsasparilla with play money they got at the old bank,” she said. “For many of them, it was the first time they had been there.”

That event was just one of many, many examples of how the community has stepped up to provide everything from water bottles to unique educational programs, like quilting, guitar lessons, circuit-board building and more.

“Usually, we just have to ask and someone will be there with whatever we need,” she said. “The community has been great.”

Over the years, the Kingfisher program has caught the attention of the state education department, Tollefson said.

“One of the really neat things is that the state department has noticed our template,” she said.

“They’ve recommended that schools thinking about designing their own program come visit us and see what we’re doing here and schools have done that.”

Barrick said that above and beyond the educational value of the enrichment program is the “feel good” benefits it provides the students who participate.

“While the kids are learning, they are also just getting to be kids,” she said. “Simple things like playing card games or board games are not things every kid gets to do otherwise.”

Barrick said she was especially touched when a visiting state department official asked one of the participants what he likes most about his time in STARS.

“He said ‘it makes me feel good,’” she said. “And that makes all of us feel good about what we’re trying to do in this program.”

Barrick said the STARS program has served more than 200 students in grades 3-8 over its first 10 years.

Because KPS is adding a new site for seventh and eighth graders, the grant was rewritten for the next five years to serve grades 4-8.

“We’re only allowed to have the program at two sites, and with the new seventh and eighth grade center, we would be stretched to three if we wanted to continue including third graders,” Tollefson said.

Kingfisher’s new superintendent, Dr. Daniel Craig, is just getting familiar with the STARS program.

But he was the one who took the congratulatory phone call informing him of the district’s selection for another five years.

“When (the state education department) made the phone call to Dr. Craig on being awarded the grant for the third time, the Executive Director Sonja Johnson stated this is a rare accomplishment,” Tollefson said.

Craig got a taste of how the program works when he joined STARS students on the field trip to the museum.

“It was such a joy watching our students at the museum discussing history and interacting with all the displays,” he said. “The museum staff did a great job with the activities and pacing. “I am really proud of

“I am really proud of everyone that wrote and worked with the grant and so impressed we have been awarded multiple times.

“But with Kingfisher I wouldn’t expect anything less.”