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see SUMMER
More than 600 Powhatan County Public Schools students will participate in some type of summer recovery or summer boost program to help them move forward to their next steps by the end of summer.
The bulk of the classes were scheduled for two two-week sessions, from June 21 to July 1 and from July 12 to 22, with a week off in between. Powhatan Middle School, where the secondary classes are being held, also added a third session solely focused on math recovery from July 26 to Aug. 5 to help keep class sizes down.
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While numbers are up across the board, the largest impact by far is being seen at the elementary level, which is serving 323 students in pre-K through fi fth grade in the midst of several large modifi cations to the way it was run this year. Elementary summer school in 2020 had 106 students and had 201 students in 2019.
The elementary program, which is being held over four weeks at Powhatan Elementary School this summer, transitioned to a full-day of instruction from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for students this year, said Dr. Cheryl Thomas, director of elementary education. The division had received feedback from parents that participating with a half-day summer school program was diffi cult for working families.
“We had gotten that information over some time, but recovery money allowed us to do it …. and then it extended the children’s learning time as well,” she said.
The longer day led to several other changes to summer offerings, staffing, food services, and transportation, said Isabella Worrell, assistant principal of Powhatan Elementary School. All of those changes presented some challenges, but she added the “challenges came from the operational side not from the academic side. The teachers rock out the academics.”
While the numbers aren’t as high at the middle and high school levels, they are still higher than in the past.
Christine Phaup, assistant principal at the middle school, said she will have 32 students in recovery classes over three sessions and 13 students in an optional boot camp for students who wanted to have some enrichment to be prepared for next year’s grade level.
At the high school level, 88 students are coming to the middle school for face-to-face recovery courses and 161 are doing online credit recovery, said Mike Barak, PHS assistant principal. Although there are higher numbers than usual, he said the summer is going well.
“Summer school has been a wonderful experience, and our staff have worked tremendously hard to engage our kids and help make them successful,” he said.
In the midst of all this, the school division learned halfway through summer school that the executive order regarding mask wearing in K-12 settings had been extended through July 25. Previously, PCPS made the decision that masks would be optional.
The state health commissioner issued an order “fi nding that a public health emergency due to COVID-19 continues to exist, and requiring all individuals aged fi ve and older to wear masks when indoors at public and private K-12 schools in order to inhibit the spread of the virus.”
The order does allow for certain exceptions depending on the person’s health or what activity they are doing. Dr. Eric Jones, superintendent, said at the July 13 school board meeting that families may contact the schools about any exceptions applicable to their children.
He added that despite the unwelcome news about masks being added back at summer school, the school division is planning for the 2021-2022 school year to have masks as optional rather than required.
Elementary students
As they do every summer, the academic portion of elementary summer school connects with the gaps teachers have seen with the students participating, Thomas said.
With rising kindergarteners, whether they attended pre-kindergarten or have never been in school before, the summer program is considered a learning booster. Called Countdown to Kindergarten Camp, it is focused on skills the student screeners have identifi ed as areas where they need more preparation before they start kindergarten, she said. PCPS partnered with the United Way of Greater Richmond this summer - a new step that allowed the school division to expand from two to three classes.
Kindergarten through fi fth grade classes are focused on recovery in reading and math, she said. Each child arrived with information from their end-of-year screening tests that helped identify the areas summer school teachers need to focus with them. She added that staff put together kits that expand the reading and math programs and provide some highly interactive activities that focus on different skills.
“It is a targeted focus on the skills the students need to have prior to going to the next grade,” Thomas said.
see SUMMER pg. 7
Summer reading in the Great Outdoors
PHOTOS BY LAURA MCFARLAND
Powhatan County Public Library held an Outdoor Storytime on July 14 on the grass by the picnic table as part of the summer reading program. New youth services librarian Anne Blankman had a captive audience, including 35 young children, as she read ‘Lola at the Library,’ “Caps for Sale,’ and ’Is Your Mama a Llama?’
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Advertisein Powhatan Today’sChurch Directory. Call804-746-1235 ext.2fordetails.
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