Expanding learning

COSTA MESA — At the Wilson Street Learning Center on Tuesday, a newly installed bulletin board displayed the names of the Westside’s secondary schools and their team names. In the middle of the board were nametags of middle school students — just two of them — who stopped by the center after school for tutoring.

Gina Gartner, the director of the center, doesn’t expect the board to stay empty for long.

“Just in general, we’re wanting to do something where kids in this neighborhood could have a place to do homework,” said Gartner, the mother of two TeWinkle Middle School students. “A lot of their homes are not that quiet.”

For three years, the Westside center has offered after-school tutoring and study space for elementary school students. This week, the center began offering services to middle and high school students too. Every day until 5 p.m., children from the local secondary campuses can work with tutors, catch up on their reading and use the center’s new computers.

It’s barely visible to the average passerby — a cluster of rooms tucked behind the Harbor Christian Fellowship — but the Wilson Street Learning Center has been growing considerably this year. In June, the center, which is run by the adjoining church, was among 36 nonprofits in the country receiving a $15,000 grant from the Ameriquest Mortgage Co. This fall, Vanguard University volunteers helped construct a new recreation room. Now, with the center more streamlined and technology-savvy than ever, Gartner is out to expand its reach. The center will serve Estancia and Costa Mesa high schools and TeWinkle.

On the first two days, both of the secondary students at the center were from TeWinkle, but Estancia High School Principal Tom Antal said he expected the site to be a popular after-school destination for his students.

“We find that many of the students from the Westside of town have lots of commitments for their families,” he said. “It’s not so much a matter of finding a quiet place as having commitments after school and fewer resources of academic help when they need it. If they don’t have obligations to their families, they now have another place where they can work without distractions. It’s terrific.”

The center, which serves about 50 elementary students, has a study room set aside for the upper grades, with the recreation room next door still in progress. Mireya Reyes, a TeWinkle sixth-grader, spent Tuesday afternoon reviewing her homework with Vanguard tutor Michelle Lotzer.

Within a few weeks, she expected to have a few friends join her.

“We’ll try to convince them,” she said. “We’ll tell them it’s a great center to help with their homework.”