It will be a short break for many USD 428 elementary students who, only a couple of weeks after the end of the school year, will be headed back to the classroom for summer school on Monday, June 5.
The district is hosting summer enrichment classes for upwards of 350 students during the month of June through the Kansas Reading Roadmap (KRR) program and regular summer school.
Summer Boost, sponsored by KRR, is for children from kindergarten through third grade. The district’s regular summer school is for fourth and fifth graders.
Summer school serves all five elementary schools and there is no cost to students or their families.
Summer school hours are 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Breakfast and lunch will be served through the district’s summer lunch program. It is free, not only for summer school students, but for everyone 18 years and younger.
Cindy Sandy, program coordinator at Eisenhower School, explained that the KRR initiative works to improve reading proficiency through after-school, family engagement and summer programming.
“Summer school guidelines for Kansas Reading Roadmap include five hours of math and reading per week.” Sandy said. “Other components are Lego robotics, simple machines, enrichment, TEAM building, community service and fieldtrips.”
Sandy said she tries to plan activities and field trips that the students might not otherwise experience. KRR program coordinators at each of the schools design their own fun activities.
“We have some very cool things planned,” Sandy said.
“This year a few of our Friday fun days will be spent traveling to Goddard to visit the Tanganyika Zoo and then off to Hutchinson to the salt museum,” she said. “We also like hands-on experiences such as making snacks for each student to have on our way back from fieldtrips.”
At Eisenhower School her theme is “Around the World in 20 Days” and will feature hot-air balloon décor in hopes of helping kids get excited about summer school.
“I love summer school,” Sandy said. “It is so much fun.”