Shayla Logan, an OSU-Mansfield student and Mansfield Senior High School graduate, works on math problems with sixth-graders at Malabar Intermediate School.
Malabar Intermediate students are sharpening their math skills after school with the help of tutors from Ohio State University-Mansfield.
Fourteen OSU students are working Tuesday and Thursday afternoons each week with an average of 55 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders. Sessions run from 2:45 to 4:15 p.m.
Compensation for the tutors -- $10 an hour – is paid from a grant Malabar received late last summer from the Fran and Warren Rupp Fund through the Richland County Foundation.
Shayla Logan, an OSU sophomore and graduate of Mansfield Senior High School, was among the tutors at Malabar on Tuesday. She worked with a group of sixth-graders on converting fractions to decimal-point percentages.
“This extra tutoring is great for our students and certainly in line with the objectives of the generous Fran and Warren Rupp Fund grant,” said Assistant Principal Tom Hager.
Working with Allie Watson of the Richland Foundation, Hager was instrumental in obtaining a $94,162 Rupp Fund grant. The bulk of the money -- $62,000 -- allowed Malabar to secure a five-year contract for GO MATH! textbooks and related materials.
The remainder of the money was earmarked for field trips, tutoring, promotion of Malabar’s math literacy nights and classroom projectors.
“We will be taking groups of fourth-graders to the Greater Cleveland Aquarium each day during the week of March 9-13,” Hager said. “The visits will support state academic standards. Students will participate in a 30-minute ecosystems session before touring the aquarium.”
Funds from the Rupp grant also allowed Malabar sixth-graders to visit the Columbus campus of Ohio State University last fall for “college awareness days.”