"Play It Smart" is an after school program that is run in the Park Center Cafeteria. This program is designed to offer a quiet study area for students where they can also receive tutoring for their classes. This program is funded by the National Football Foundation, as well as a Multicultural Integration Grant.
"Play It Smart" meets every Monday through Friday from 2:15pm to 5:00pm. A late bus is available to take students home. Currently the Park Center athletic programs involved are:
Sophomore and Varsity Football
Cheerleaders
Varsity Swimming
Girls Freshmen, Sophomore, JV and Varsity Basketball
Boys Basketball
Play It Smart is a valuable resource as it provides a service to students at PC that isn't available at many other schools. The only other school in the area that offers this program is St. Paul Central. Tutors provided by North Hennepin Community College and our own National Honor Society are available for all major subjects including, English, Math, Social Studies, Science, Spanish and French (additional subjects are added as the demand for them increases). Play It Smart can have dramatic effects on the grades of people that are committed to working hard at it. In one case, a student was receiving a 1.78 GPA average per trimester, and has earned a 3.22 GPA per trimester since participating in the program.
Play It Smart in the Lunch Room
Ms. Stoa is the academic coach for Park Center's Play It Smart program. She started her work at Park Center back in 1999 as a registrar for a few years, but returned to college to earn her teaching degree. As the academic coach, she functions as a mentor, counselor, teacher, coach and advocate. She essentially runs the Play it Smart program, and supervises the after school study sessions.
Although the program was designed for students on athletic teams, anyone at Park Center is welcome to join. If you are interested in joining Play it Smart to raise your grades, have access to ACT or SAT test prep materials, or just looking for a quiet place to study, all you have to do is speak to Ms. Stoa. She can be contacted by phone: 763-569-7600 (Ext. 88123), or emailed here.
