Building the Bridges for Student Success: Temple Beth El's Journey With Sterling Elementary School

August 2023

By Ruth Pordes

As part of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools house of faith partnership initiative, Temple Beth El (TBE) began collaborating with Sterling Elementary School, a Title I school, more than ten years ago.

The relationship remains strong, overcoming the hurdles of the pandemic period. Activities include direct student support, helping teachers in their classrooms, tutoring through Heart Math Tutoring, Read Charlotte HELPS Program, and the Augustine Literacy Project. Periodic donations of requested, and desperately needed, resources and services are made possible through funds collected by SPICE, Temple Beth El’s group for senior adults, as well as family holiday gift bags through the annual Giving Tree initiative.

Volunteers also help with back-to-school materials, working to get information packets together for families, and supplying teacher appreciation meals and support so teachers can focus on their classrooms.

But it is the direct interaction and service to students that brings the most enthusiasm and satisfaction to our volunteers. “For me, there’s never a day that I am in the classroom that I do not learn, not only from the teacher but also from the students,” says longtime volunteer Sara Friedman, who volunteers in a third-grade class. “I leave knowing that I both have helped and received.”

Volunteering in schools only heightens appreciation of the work and excellence of the teachers. TBE congregant Jenn Sawyer reflected on her time in the classroom, noting that the “teacher is so adept at handling her large brood. Each day, the students rotate through stations practicing decoding, handwriting, rhyming, etc. I leave every day with a smile on my face!"

Volunteers each contribute about an hour a week during school hours and help two to three individual students during that time. For the upcoming school year, Sterling plans to increase their in-class volunteers and Heart Math Tutoring is hoping to add to the number of math tutors as they transition back to in-school learning.

As our volunteers have shared, the work is fulfilling, bolstering the learning of the students, helping the teachers in an overworked system, and providing volunteers with the opportunity to connect with, and learn from, the students as they work together.

To learn more about volunteering at Sterling, please contact Ruth Pordes at rpordes@icloud. com

Learn more about Heart Math Tutoring by visiting their website at

www.heartmathtutoring.org and contact Liz Wahls at lizwahls11@gmail.com to learn more about volunteering.