Learning on the Menu

Homework too often is an afterthought in the busy household of Vanessa Lucero and her two young sons.

Simply getting dinner on the table is a big chore.

“I get home and I’m so exhausted,” said Lucero, 25, who works for a state agency. “We don’t ever sit together as a family.”

But each Monday, Lucero, her husband, and sons, 7 and 9, attend an event at the boys’ school, Manzano Mesa Elementary, where the family eats a good meal and the boys do homework under the supervision of teachers and volunteer tutors.

Manzano Mesa started the program, called Homework Diner, to offer students a safe, focused environment for finishing homework assignments with the help of parents and teachers. The school is near Southern and Eubank SE.

Parents and school officials say the program owes much of its success to two culinary arts students from Central New Mexico Community, who prepare tasty, nutritious meals for up to 90 people each week.

“This is wonderful help,” Lucero said on a recent Monday evening. “If I don’t know how to solve a second-grade problem, they have teachers here.”

The school provides books and other supplies that are often lacking at home, she said. And Lucero can help her sons do homework without worrying about preparing dinner.

“Usually I feed them and then I clean up, and before I know it, it’s bedtime already,” she said. “How often do you get to sit at a table and eat together and do homework?”

Lasagna and salad were on the menu for 89 people who attended the event in the school’s gymnasium. Tablecloths, china dishes and real silverware provide a homey feel.

Among those attending were six teachers who each are paid $20 for the evening through federal Title 1 funding. Helping the teachers were University of New Mexico student teachers, volunteer tutors and Manzano Mesa administrators.

Homework Diner is funded by a $1,000 grant provided through Albuquerque Sprout, a microgrant program sponsored by the nonprofit Rio Grande Community Development Corp.

Deanna Creighton Cook, the community school coordinator, estimated the cost of the program at $200 a week, including about $100 a week for food. The school is searching for additional funding and plans to continue the program as long as money is available, she said.

Manzano Mesa began Homework Diner last school year, when it offered six events, Creighton Cook said.

Other schools in APS have expressed interest in replicating the program, she said.

Older siblings of Manzano Mesa students often come to finish homework, Principal Peggy Candelaria said.

“This is a safe, inviting place for the community to come and get homework done,” she said. Parents benefit by watching their children learn from skilled teachers and tutors, Candelaria said.

“The family watches the way the teacher presents the information to the kids, and they’re able to mirror that at home,” she said.

Among Manzano Mesa’s students, no fewer than nine foreign languages are spoken in the home, Candelaria said.

Chinese and Vietnamese translators with the New Mexico Asian Family Center also take part in Homework Diner to help Asian-language speakers, who make up 10 percent of Manzano Mesa’s student body. Many teachers speak Spanish.

“Having a translator here and having them read aloud is so important to having the parents play the active role that we want them to play in the child’s education,” said Tasha McWilliam, a student teacher who tutors at Homework Diner.