Free after-school tutoring is being offered to Charles Henderson Middle School students as part of the school’s efforts to meet national performance standards.

The Troy City Schools Board of Education on Monday approved a contract to provide three hours of free tutoring to CHMS students each week as part of efforts to offset the school’s shortfalls in Adequate Yearly Progress. The tutoring is available from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with an emphasis in reading and math.

CHMS failed to meet performance standards for the second year in a row in certain categories, as required by the federal No Child Left Behind statues. With the school flagged for “improvement,” and since there are no alternative middle schools available in district administrators must provide Supplement Educational Services to all students and parents.

“We have to set aside 10 percent of our Title 1 (federal) funding to provide the SES,” said Chresal Threadgill, assistant superintendent of the district. That’s nearly $59,000, and Threadgill said the funds will be used both for this program and for professional development programs for CHMS teachers, as required by No Child Left Behind.

TCS will pay $47 per hour for each student tutored and students are eligible to receive up to 20 hours of tutoring. The tutoring will be offered in small group settings (six students or fewer) and will be conducted primarily by CHMS faculty members who have been contracted by One to One to provide the after-school tutoring.

Threadgill said the practice of outside providers hiring existing faculty to provide the tutoring for SES programs is a common one in the state and a challenge for smaller districts such as Troy City Schools. “Normally when you have intervention tutoring, like at Sylvan (Learning Centers) what you want is some sort of strategic tutoring, something different than what you’re already doing,” he said.

Faculty who are working with the One to One tutoring program are supposed to be trained in new techniques, he said.

Nearly 50 students are registered for the tutoring services, which begin this month and continue through April. Registration for the services will continue through March.

In other business on Monday, the board approved the hiring of Eric Swain as a math teacher at CHMS. He replaces Becky Kirby, who retired in November.