Posted on 10/30/2006 7:35:53 AM PST by WestTexasWend
The watchdogs who patrol Charlotte Ann Cox Elementary School in Cedar Park and Annie Purl Elementary in Georgetown are a special breed.
They're friendly and huggable and have names like Fred, Wes and Bill.
"One of the great things about being a watchdog is that every kid knows I'm there to help them," said Wes Watkins, father of a Purl kindergartner. "The students smile when they see me, and my son is proud to have me on campus."
Watkins is among approximately 90 fathers in the Georgetown school district and about the same number in the Leander district who serve as WatchDOG dads, volunteers in a national program that puts fathers on school campuses each day to bolster security and act as role models. DOGs stands for Dads of Great Students.
WatchDOGs can also be grandfathers or other adult male family members.
They greet students as they get off buses in the morning. In the afternoon, they walk the halls and perimeters of a campus, checking to see that the appropriate doors are locked. They also help teachers in class and monitor cafeteria and recess periods.
At Cox Elementary last week, Fred Urbanovsky took time from his sales job to serve as a Thursday volunteer.
Surrounded by a circle of second-graders in Karen Papa's class, Urbanovsky played a spelling word game and helped his son, Noah, 8, edit a writing assignment.
"You not only get to see and interact with other people's kids; you get involved with your own child's learning," he said.
Noah said he likes his dad's presence.
"It's good to see him," Noah said. "And I see him in the hall, too."
The Leander and Georgetown programs are the only two fully launched WatchDOG programs in the Austin area, although other campuses have various types of volunteer dad activities. In the Austin school district, Bailey Middle School enlists fathers to help monitor the campus during lunch hours.
There are 11 active programs in Texas, and 16 more are planned to start this semester, according to officials with the national WatchDOG organization in Kansas City, Mo.
About 400 schools in 35 states have the program, which is co-sponsored by the National Center for Fathering, a corporate- and foundation-funded organization that promotes responsible fatherhood. The WatchDOG program has its operational headquarters in Springdale, Ark., because a father in that city founded it after the 1998 shooting deaths of four middle school girls and a teacher in Jonesboro, Ark.
The national program includes some middle school and high school campuses, but dads are especially prized at elementary schools, said Steve Crawford, assistant principal at Cox Elementary.
"Traditionally, males have tended not to be seen at the elementary level," said Crawford, who taught fourth grade for eight years before becoming an administrator. "Yet this is the age where kids really need male role models."
Chris Jenkins, an account executive for a computer company, said he has gained insight into the typical class day at Purl Elementary in Georgetown.
"When you walk the hallways, you understand what's really going on," Jenkins said. "I recommend it to other dads."
The Cox WatchDOG activity began last year. Purl Elementary's program started this fall.
WatchDOG dads generally sign up to work one full day at their child's campus, but schedules are flexible, and dads can work as many days as they wish. Every volunteer goes through a criminal background check.
"At this point, we've signed up enough to have at least three dads a week on campus, but we'd like a lot more," said Bill Raleigh, basketball coach at Southwestern University, who heads the effort at Purl. "We dads don't get to know the inner workings of school. And the kids really get to know who you are. They wave to you in the hallway, and for many of them, it puts a male role model in their lives."
I hope they have all passed a security check.
Same goes for the teachers and staff too!
Men being men, what a concept.
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