July 17, 2005

Summer classes come to a close
Newton Summer Adventure wants to continue tweaking its curriculum.
By Julie Wyatt and Lauren Aust

For many students, the end of Newton Summer Adventure means a fat wallet, a trip to the mall and enjoying the last lazy days of summer before school begins again.

But for 8-year-old Courtney Callahan, there will be no new clothes, fancy toys or video games.

Instead, she plans to give her summer school attendance incentive to help the hungry.

As soon as she receives her Visa debit card — awarded for her attendance record — Courtney plans to donate the money to the Central Missouri Food Bank. Renewing the pledge she made on the first day of the Newton program in June, she said she wants to donate her money to help others who need it more than she does.

Newton Summer Adventure, a tuition-free summer school program in Columbia and in other public school districts nationwide, offers a $100 debit card as a reward for perfect attendance during the five-week program.

This year, the debit cards will be sent in the mail instead of being distributed on the last day. Roy Moeller, operations manager for Newton Learning, said this method ensures that the debit card isn’t lost or stolen.

“We think it’s a lot safer doing it this way, rather than having kids walking out of there with a credit card in their pocket,” Moeller said.

Students receive $100 for perfect attendance, $75 for up to seven hours missed and $50 for up to 14 hours missed. After 14 hours are missed, students do not receive any attendance incentive. Moeller said most kids receive some sort of incentive, and many have perfect attendance.

A common complaint reflected in parent surveys from Shepard Boulevard Elementary School was that students lost incentive money for visits to the office for discipline problems. Larry Jones, summer school principal at Shepard Boulevard, said after the first warning, the classroom time lost for disciplinary problems could be counted against attendance.

About 5,700 students participated in Summer Adventure in 10 schools across the district, said Larrie Reynolds, president of Newton Learning. The program ran from June 13 to July 15 for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Younger students took academic courses such as math and reading in the morning and adventure courses such as Picture Perfect, in which students studied basic photography, in the afternoon. High school students could make up classes or take them to get ahead.

As summer school came to a close, many faculty, parents and students agreed the summer session had been a success, especially compared to last year.

“I think this year just went a lot more smoothly,” Moeller said. “I think having the experience with Columbia last year just made summer school go so much better this time around.”

Last year, summer school got off to a rough start when there was a mix-up with busing assignments. Newton Learning assigned students based on where they normally went to school and the bus company, First Student, assigned students based on where they lived. About 300 students were affected by the mix-up last year, Jones said, but there were no problems with bus assignments this year.

Jones said transportation was greatly improved this year, despite a few problems with late buses.

“I think bus transportation has taken the biggest hit in terms of frustration,” Jones said. “When you’re transporting thousands of kids to schools they don’t normally go to, you’re bound to have a problem here and there.”

In addition to improvements in busing, the district also changed the summer school curriculum to make it better suited for each grade level and to make it consistent with what students learn during the regular school year, Jones said. The district also reduced the number of adventure courses at the elementary level so children would not have to change classes as often, something that caused problems for many students last year.

“Last year it was crazy,” said Lindsay Smith, a third-grader at Derby Ridge Elementary School. “This year you stayed with the same people. Last year you had to change classes, and it got really mixed up.”

As administrators already look toward next summer, there are still improvements to be made, Jones said. He said the district may look at shortening the school day and making sure adventure courses are age-appropriate. He also said the district will continue to improve the summer school curriculum to make sure it coincides with that of Columbia Public Schools.

“We’re just looking at things,” Jones said. “It’s more tweaking as opposed to a mass overhaul.”

Moeller said Newton Learning will begin to look at final enrollment data, dropout rates and incentives next week and will make a report to the Columbia School Board in the fall.

As the program came to a close, many students were satisfied with the Newton summer program.

Catherine Harris, a first-grader at Derby Ridge, said that even though she will not be receiving the incentive, she still wanted to come to school.

“I liked that we got to be challenged, not just doing the very same things we do in other grades,” Catherine said. “It’s a little more fun than I thought it would be.”

As students await their incentive in the mail, many already know where their money will be going.

Lindsay, 8, is already looking ahead to college and plans to put her money in a bank account.

Jack Powers, 7, has planned all along to buy a PlayStation.

Atlanta Bradshaw, 9, said although she came to summer school to learn, she is excited to spend her money on new school clothes.

Courtney said she’ll be checking her mailbox daily until the debit card arrives so she can hand deliver it to the food bank.

“It better be soon, because I’m not waiting until I’m 33 to get that gift card,” she said.