Westside Elementary

Westside Elementary School started Westside Night Alive (WNA) over 14 years ago. This vision of former principal, Judi Winch, who is now the current executive director for Food Brings Hope came to fruition! Judi originally wanted to make our school’s after hours into a community center so that students had a safe place to study and play after school. In turn, this would allow parents to work late and keep our students off the streets. Westside currently has 182 students enrolled in grades Kindergarten through 5th. It has since evolved into the largest after-school program in the county. The program meets daily, Monday through Friday, from 3:15-6:15 PM and 2:15-6:15 PM on Wednesdays. Students are served a hot dinner and given recreation time prior to starting their academic and STEM based activities. All students also receive homework support for a 20 minute period. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays students are also offered additional enrichment activities such as dance, cheerleading, yoga, team sports and garden. All students are able to participate in off sight field trips to further enrich and give opportunities to some that are not afforded these otherwise. These field trips include and are not limited to attending Christmas concerts and ERAU basketball games, the Sanford Zoo and the Orlando Science Center.

Eight years ago, we added the FBHonors program for students that excel academically. This program targets students with 4’s and 5’s on the Florida Standards Assessments. The focus of this program is to further enrich these students academically through STEM and STEAM based projects as well as community partnerships. The FBHonors group currently has 12 students and has had as many as 22. This group of students has a focus theme for the year and the culminating event is always an out of county field trip. For the past several years they have gone to Epcot and Magic Kingdom through the Disney Youth Educational Programs.

As the program continues to grow, our hopes are to add additional students and staff so that we may continue to provide quality after-school programs for our families.