And they’ve made a few changes: bus transportation will no longer be available for students between the enrichment program location and their homes. Parents will be responsible for this if they choose to send their child to the after-school program.
“We will work with families to make sure they can choose the enrichment program and can pick up their child,” said Amy Beldotti, associate superintendent for teaching and learning.
Last year, many parents arrived at their child’s school to pick them up on the first day of summer school only to find they had been bussed to another location for enrichment activities after school.
School officials and employees had to track down every student, ultimately bringing every family together at 8:30 p.m. that evening.
Joe Cozza, the new summer school and extended day program coordinator, said the district will make the schedule much clearer for parents this year.
“Doing this process a lot sooner…is really going to give us the opportunity…to know who’s taking a bus home, who’s taking a bus to the afternoon enrichment provider, having some lists of what students are taking advantage of which afternoon providers and have a process in place to ensure that students are going to the right place,” he said during a meeting of the committee. School Board Teaching, Learning and Community Tuesday.
This year’s summer school, delivered in either six-week or four-week sessions, will include three programs: General Education, Extended School Year for special education students, and Newcomers for non-English speaking students who have recently joined the district.
Unlike last year, the program for primary school students will run four hours a day for four weeks, from July 5 to July 29. Last year, the program lasted five hours.
Another novelty: students will be able to participate by invitation only. Classes for newcomers will be held in each of the school’s locations, as opposed to a single location like last year.
In high school, three courses of 75 minutes each will be offered. The courses will last six weeks, from June 27 to August 5.
Summer school for K-5 students will be held at four locations: Northeast Elementary School, Westover Magnet Elementary School, Strawberry Hill School and Rogers International School.
For students in grades 6-8, classes will be held at Rippowam Middle School. Stamford High School will be the site for high school students.
Students are invited to the summer school based on academic needs. The district uses assessments such as DIBELS – Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills – and Lexile, as filters to select which students will be invited. About 3,800 elementary and middle school students are expected to be invited to the summer program, Cozza said.
At the high school level, students qualify for summer school based on their need to recover credits, making it harder to predict how many students will attend, Cozza said. He estimated that around 600 high school students, 127 extended school year students and 84 newcomers would attend the summer school.
Registration for the summer school will take place on June 22 and 23.
ignacio.laguarda@stamfordadvocate.com