Summer School in the Park City School District begins soon. For the first time, its being offered at no charge. The new online teaching paradigm will be used and had almost 600 students apply to participate for summer classes.
Park City School District Community Education Director Todd Klarich says virtual summer school will start June 15 and run through July 23. He says they’ll offer a unique academic opportunity for students K through eight this summer.
“We’re still doing academics in the morning. The schedule looks 9 to 12 for academics. Students will be pre-assessed and then based on their assessments will have an academic individual pathway designed for them which is very unique. Students will start the academic program at 9:00 AM. They'll go into a virtual classroom with the teacher and their classmates. They will have about 30 minutes of class time in this meeting. The teacher will go over objectives for the day and talk about any relevant information, teach a small mini lesson and then the students will be released to work on the academic pathway.”
In the past, summer school has attracted around 200 students. They’ve been overwhelmed with this summer’s response.
“We have registration over 565 students currently. Due to the high demand and numbers we have had to cap this, so we are currently taking applications and reviewing them on a case by case basis. So hopefully we will be able to accommodate all students.”
Klarich says they are pre-testing all students for a baseline assessment so they can tailor an individual curriculum for each child.
“Depending on the individual pathway, we’re going to do small groups from 9:00 to 9:30 and then they'll work with their specific teachers from 9 until 12 in all academics, literacy, math, reading and writing.”
Summer school fees usually run about $125.00. This year the district is waving all fees. Klarich says summer school isn’t just for remediation. It’s open to everyone. They’ll instruct with academics in the morning and enrichment programming in the afternoon.
“We’re also offering enrichment activities each afternoon, 12:30 to 2:30. We will be offering these classes in the afternoon. We have activity scheduled such as fitness, cooking, art, STEM, escape room, percussion, recycling, coding, and dance. This year we're also offering language classes for native Spanish speakers and students who are part of the DLI French and Spanish programs.”
For students that had difficulty adjusting to the online school systems, Klarich says the outreach team is involved identifying individual needs.
“We’re with our outreach team to do some home visits. If we can't reach these kids, we’re going to do everything in our power to try to find out what the reason is. Is it a lack understanding Zoom or Google Meets or is it a lack of having a Wi-Fi hotspot? So, we're actually going to be working with the families and our outreach team.”
Klarich says they’ve been surprised by the number of teachers that want to get involved and teach in this unique summer format. They’re going to have 18-20 teachers on staff along with the outreach coordinators.
The program is for rising kindergarten students through eighth grade. The link to register for summer school can be found o n KPCW.org.
