Howell's Summer Program Enters Its Second Year, But Enrollment Is Down

By Shane Anthony

June 19, 2002

Amanda Wollenberg and Julia Marbach could've been home or at the pool, but on Monday, they found themselves back at Barnwell Middle School, where they just finished eighth grade.

The girls, both 14, are participating in Francis Howell Summer Odyssey, a program the district is paying Edison Extra Schools to run. This is the program's second year.

Not as many Francis Howell students as expected chose to attend the free summer school, but Amanda and Julia said they preferred it to staying home.

"None of my friends are at home," Julia said.

Amanda agreed. "At home, all I would be able to do is be outside by myself or sit inside and watch TV, so that would be pretty boring."

Instead, Amanda and Julia are taking math, science, social studies and language arts classes in the mornings and classes that include computers, puzzles, outdoor games and Spanish as afternoon electives.

Edison, a private, for-profit company, offered the district's first-ever enrichment summer school program last year for elementary school students. This year, the program expanded to include high school and middle school enrichment programs. Schools also are offering classes to students who need to make up credits or have fallen behind.

Enrollment drop

Last summer, an average of about 2,900 students attended the elementary summer school classes instead of having their full five-week cycle break. Joyce Kulage, regional operations manager for Edison Extra Schools, said the elementary attendance had dropped to 2,720 thus far this year. Enrollment figures released Tuesday showed 765 middle school and 757 high school students attending.

The total attendance of 4,242 was lower than the 7,000 students Edison and Francis Howell officials expected to see, Kulage said, but she still believed the program was working well.

A change in the prize policy might have kept enrollment down, Kulage said. Last year, students could win go-karts, video game systems and television sets as prizes for attendance. This year, the district asked Edison to offer more educational prizes such as books, puzzles and educational games. At Barnwell, students could win gift certificates to Best Buy.

Kulage said iMac and Macintosh G4 computers were being offered as larger prizes this year.

Edison developed the curriculum and hires the teachers at $25 an hour and administrators at $35 an hour for the summer program. Elementary school students could attend from June 10 through July 3. They go back to school on July 17. Middle school students can attend from June 3-28, and the high school program, housed at Francis Howell North, has two sessions - June 10-28 and July 8-26.

Extra aid

Last year, with 2,900 students attending, the district received an extra $4.6 million in state aid for offering the summer school program because of the way the state counts summer school attendance hours. The district kept about $1.6 million of that money after paying Edison for expenses and a percentage for profit.

How this year's numbers will affect the amount of money the district will receive was not clear Tuesday afternoon, but undoubtedly it will drag the number down, Superintendent Dan O'Donnell said.

O'Donnell said the district had to spend some of its money to keep special-education teaching assistants on staff because the number of students attending was lower than expected. Still, he said, the district wouldn't have the kind of money to cover up-front costs that Edison does, and the company develops the curriculum so Francis Howell staff members don't have to take time away from their normal duties to do so.

In addition, the district gets to keep the curriculum and materials. For example, Barnwell Middle School will get to keep 24 new Gateway laptop computers that come with wireless Internet and wireless network capabilities.

Teachers like Lolle Boettcher said the program was working. Boettcher, who retired at the end of this school year from teaching language arts at Barnwell, said students enjoyed playing Wiffleball with a flat-sided bat and a game in which she hid a marble in ice chips, but they were raising their reading levels in the morning classes, too. "I love the way it's broken up," she said. "You see two different sides of the students. You see the academic side and you see the play side."

Laura Price, a sixth-grade math teacher at Barnwell, agreed. In her afternoon classes, students put together puzzles, some of which were three-dimensional versions of a working grandfather clock, the Titanic and the Chrysler Building. "It's much better than last year," Price said.

Dave Stofer, a physical education teacher at Francis Howell Middle School, is serving as Barnwell's principal during the summer school program. He recently completed classes that will allow him to become an administrator, and he said he was enjoying the summer school experience.  "I've been really amazed at how well it has done," he said.

But last summer, Edison was criticized by some, including the Francis Howell Education Association, for not having supplies in place when summer school started. The association's leaders have said their major complaint is having a for-profit company running a program the district could run on its own.

Nationally, Edison's stock has dropped by more than 85 percent, but company officials have said the 51 summer school programs it runs in Missouri would continue this summer without interruption. 

O'Donnell said the district has considered running its own program eventually, but "it would be difficult for us to front the whole thing."

But for now, students like Isaac Kirkpatrick, 13, who just finished seventh grade at Barnwell, will attend classes. Isaac said his favorite classes were working with computers. If it weren't for summer school, he said, he'd probably be sleeping or on the computer at home. "It's all right," he said.