Groton — Three months into a new initiative to provide after-school enrichment to elementary students in the Groton Public Schools, programs are running in six of the town's seven elementary schools, with the seventh to follow shortly.

Districtwide, activities have drawn 15 to 25 students each, or approximately 360 total students. In at least one instance, a program at Pleasant Valley Elementary School filled up in 24 hours.

The six schools are offering programs in the arts, fitness and science, technology, engineering and math. Activities are provided at no cost to families; parents pick up their children if they take the school bus, or students walk home.

Mary Morrisson Elementary School will start offering enrichment after school shortly as well, Assistant Superintendent Susan Austin said. 

At Pleasant Valley, the fitness program about volleyball fundamentals filled up in one day.

Elena Lockett, a fourth-grade teacher and volleyball coach at Robert E. Fitch High School, teaches the program with her daughter, a senior at the University of Connecticut and former volleyball player at Fitch.

The students "watch the games on Channel 19, so when we opened up the program, they just really jumped on it," she said Monday. 

Superintendent Michael Graner proposed after-school enrichment programs during the last budget season in an effort to reach out to gifted and talented students, but also to provide opportunity to all students.

The budget included $2,700 for each elementary school to cover teacher stipends and supplies.

"The schools have really personalized (the programs) based on the interest of students and the interests of teachers,” Austin said. “We wanted to create fairness across the district but you also see individualism; you see the creativity.”

At Charles Barnum Elementary School, Principal Seth Danner, who formerly ran a hiking club at Carl C. Cutler Middle School, started a hiking club for fourth- and fifth-grade students.

The children meet every Friday, take part in team-building activities and hike locally.

Danner also brings in ninth-graders to serve as mentors to the elementary students.

At Pleasant Valley Elementary School, teachers designed three clubs for the fall: volleyball; music composition, which teaches students how to compose original music using a computer program; and coding, which shows children how to create a computer program to create simple animation.

Each program runs on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays for six sessions, and changes with the fall, winter and spring session.

Dustin Harvey Jr., 10, chose volleyball.

"I picked this because I'm an athletic kid and I'm trying to find something after school where I'm not doing anything else," he said.

He also plays football, basketball and baseball, he said.

Kyra Robinson, 11, said she knew the teacher was a volleyball coach and wanted to learn from her. Kyra also plays violin and swims, enjoys these activities and plans to continue them, she said. 

Time for homework isn't a problem, she said.

"Before I go to swimming (on Mondays) I have about an hour, so I do homework then," she said. "Then I go swimming, eat dinner, I practice my violin and go to bed."

The model for Groton’s enrichment program came from Minds in Motion, Saturday workshops offered through the Connecticut Association for the Gifted, Austin said.

Although the Groton school programs have so far enrolled students in the elementary grades of 3, 4 and 5, future programs would include the primary grades, Austin said.

The schools also are looking at ways to offer enrichment opportunities before and during the school day, she said.

“While it’s an after-school program, there has been conversation about also offering it in the morning," she said. “So there may be opportunities throughout the year where kids may also have enrichment in the morning, as well.”

d.straszheim@theday.com

Twitter: @DStraszheim