St. Albans Housing Tutoring Program Seeks Volunteers

bcalwell@cnpapers.com

As Alan Rezek walked past St. Albans High School one sunny afternoon, a student emerged from the building waving and yelling at him enthusiastically, “Hey, Mr. Rezek, how are you doing?”

Rezek, a volunteer tutor with the St. Albans Housing Authority, recalled recently how that young man, whom he had helped with his math years earlier, recognized him on the SAHS campus.

Seeing the happy student was all the payback Rezek needed for his years of effort with the housing authority’s tutoring program. That, and similar encounters with grateful students, is what keeps him coming back year after year as a volunteer.

With the start of a new school year, the St. Albans Housing Authority is seeking more volunteers to staff its tutoring program for students in grades one through 12.

Tutors are asked to volunteer in one-hour increments at First Presbyterian Church of St. Albans. Tutoring sessions are offered from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. or 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, said Dave Ryan, tutor coordinator.

“The church is very gracious about that,” Ryan said.

The program was targeted originally to students of low-income families covered by the housing authority, but about eight years ago it was opened up to all students in St. Albans and surrounding communities.

“We’ve gotten a few [students] from South Charleston and a few from Cross Lanes – a lot of people know about it,” Ryan said.

The program needs more tutors because some of the students need more than one hour of instruction a week. The tutoring program offers help in most school subjects, including math, English and foreign languages. Tutoring is done one-on-one in an open area of the church.

Many tutors in the program are retired teachers and other professionals. Ryan is retired from Union Carbide, and through that connection, he has enlisted the help of retired engineers, who offer expertise in math. The program even has a medical doctor as a volunteer tutor.

“I have probably five engineers, and one guy has a doctorate in chemistry,” Ryan said.

Ryan estimated that 60 percent of the students that seek extra help are in elementary schools, with the other 40 percent coming from middle and high schools.

“Math is a biggie, and in the grade school area, it’s reading comprehension,” said Ryan, who mainly tutors fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.

Rezek, a St. Albans resident and a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, has been a volunteer tutor for more than 12 years. In fact, his two daughters, Natalie and Emily, volunteered as tutors with him when they were in high school.

“As my daughters went through high school, they did it with me. I love it. Over the years, I’ve [tutored] math and science, and I’ve also done some other things depending on what was needed,” Rezek said.

The New York native said he wished students would seek extra help with their work before they get in over their heads and into “panic mode. I wish the kids would start sooner … catching up is more difficult,” he said.

The young man who acknowledged him at SAHS came into the program when he was in the seventh grade. “He was having a difficult time going from elementary school into junior high, so he came into the tutoring program.”

Seeing him, Rezek knew the student “had done well – it’s working,” he said.

Ryan gets the word out about the tutoring program by visiting area schools and talking with principals and guidance counselors, who, in turn, relay the information to students and parents. And he said parents are critical in getting their children motivated.

“Some of them are a little reluctant, and that has to do with the parents. The parents have to be motivated to get these kids to do their class work,” Ryan said.

For more information about becoming a volunteer tutor, call Ryan at 727-2463 or 550-6102.

Staff writer Ben Calwell can be reached via e-mail, or by calling 348-5188.