Sylvan Learning delays tutoring, leaves kids behind

By Steven Gnagni
Managing Editor

Just one and a half months from now, one of Toi Perry’s daughters, who is in the seventh grade, will begin taking some important state achievement tests. Her daughter’s scores on those tests are very important: They will likely determine which high school she attends.

Naturally, Ms. Perry, who lives here in Highbridge, was excited when she heard about the free Supplemental Educational Services (SES) tutoring program the federal government was sponsoring. Her daughter’s school was eligible, and her daughter needed help—her scores on the sixth grade state tests were poor. The tutoring sessions were supposed to begin last December.

Many programs started in late January. Meanwhile, Ms. Perry, who had signed up with Sylvan Learning Center, was still waiting late last month to hear if her daughter (and her two other children) had been accepted. So she called District 9.

“Melvin Thompson [assistant superintendent for grants and contracts and the district liaison for the SES program] told me, ‘We’re out of it,’” Ms. Perry recalled. “I knew it was too good to be true.”

But in fact, her children had been accepted to the program, and it was Sylvan that was holding up the process.

“We’re still finalizing the process,” a Sylvan spokesman said last week after confirming that Ms. Perry’s three children had been accepted. “We do not know the start date yet. They’ll all be receiving something in the mail—next week probably—and then tutoring will start shortly thereafter.”

Mr. Thompson said there is little the district can do to help Ms. Perry. “There is no oversight from the district level,” he said. “If they [the parents] opt for other providers, they set up a contract with the provider, and we are completely out of it. The providers send us an invoice, and we pay them for it. That’s the only responsibility we have.”

Ms. Perry said that when she called Mr. Thompson a second time, he informed her that Sylvan was holding up the process because the company was asking for more money for the tutoring.

For Ms. Perry’s daughter, the start date may be too late. She feels equally bad for other children who desperately need help preparing for the tests in April.

“A lot of children, it would’ve helped them if it started earlier,” Ms. Perry said.