Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Summer school is an adventure at Meramec Valley by Danette Fertig-Thompson of the Suburban Journals

Talk to many kids, and the words "summer school" and "fun" will never be used in the same sentence.

But for kids attending Meramec Valley R-3's program this June, summer school is an adventure.

Nearly one-third of R-3 students — more than 1,200 kids — in kindergarten through eighth grade are enrolled in the Summer Adventure 2004 at area schools, a program that combines learning with fun in courses ranging from rockets to the wild West.

This is the third year the district has contracted with Newton Learning, a Texas-based company that provides summer school curriculum to schools nationwide. Choosing to try the Newton program in the summer of 2002 rather than continue with a district-run program proved to be a good choice for both kids and schools.

"Our summer school attendance tripled the first year with Newton," said Janet Hubbard, assistant superintendent. "Kids and parents like it, it's both fun and challenging, and it's benefited the schools financially."

The district had been running what was basically a remedial summer program before 2002. While Summer Adventure does reinforce core skills in reading, language arts, social studies, math and science during the morning hours, kids get to choose from a wide variety of elective courses during the afternoon that get them moving, spark their creativity and challenge their brain.

"When we decide which electives to offer, we include sports and physical activities because we want to encourage kids to be active," Hubbard said. "Then we like to have arts and crafts activities where they can try something new and also leave with something they've made. The other electives are activities that give kids a chance to stretch their creative muscles and learn something while having fun."

There's a whole smorgasbord of elective courses kids get to try, including a variety of team sports, contemporary dance, Spanish, cartooning, a course that uses LEGO building to reinforce math concepts, rocketry, the sport of cup stacking, a course that helps train the brain for sports and other activities where using both hands is important, and wood crafts.

For each grade level, there are six electives and kids get to try all six during the 20 days of the program.

Even the core curriculum is aimed at getting kids excited about learning, Hubbard said.

For example, this year's social studies program has a Missouri emphasis. Middle school children are solving math mysteries, elementary students are reading and writing about the old West and students are learning about the science of weather, structures, motion and space flight.

Reinforcing those core academic skills is an important part of the program, Hubbard said, because if kids don't read or practice their math skills over the summer, they can lose some of the skills they learned during the school year.

All the supplies and curriculum for the program are provided by Newton, and teachers can keep curriculum guides and supplies for use in their classrooms after summer school is over.

So while time is involved developing the specific agenda of courses and academic curriculum for the summer, Hubbard said district staff wouldn't have the time and resources to operate such an extensive program in-house.

"We couldn't do a program like this and run the school year, too. It would take at least one person, dedicating all their time to developing summer school curriculum," she said.

Using Newton has also brought new revenue into the R-3 district.

The program is offered free to students, both in and out of the district, as well as private or parochial school students. Transportation is provided, and in-district students go to summer school at whatever school they attend during the regular school year.

There is a fee for students who need care before and after regular summer school hours.

Funding for summer school comes from the state. For summer school, school districts receive double the per-student reimbursement rate districts receive during the regular school year.

In 2001, when the district ran its own summer school program, R-3 received $220,000 in summer school revenue for 30,360 hours of total summer school attendance.

In 2002, the first year the district contracted with Newton Learning, the district paid Newton $1,187,769 and R-3 netted $444,366 in new revenue for 218,949 hours of summer school attendance.

Last year, the district netted $350,534 for 186,167 hours of attendance, and Hubbard anticipates about the same return for 2004.

Hubbard said one of the only criticisms of the program has been the financial incentives offered to students for attendance.

"No, we shouldn't pay kids to go to school; kids should want to come to school for the sake of learning," Hubbard said. "But this is summer school and although the rules of behavior are the same, what's different is the kids can earn incentives for being here. Of course, we wouldn't pay kids to attend school during the regular school year. But summer school isn't required, and the incentives are part of the Newton program."

Hubbard said the cash and daily prize awards are included in the fee the district pays Newton.

Students can earn $100 for perfect attendance; $75 for up to seven hours or one day missed; and $50 for more than seven and up to 14 hours missed.

Daily prizes are awarded based on good behavior and achievement.

Overall, Hubbard said, the majority of kids and parents are happy with the summer school program, which keeps them coming back.

"We've been very pleased overall. It's been a winning program for everyone," she said.