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New-and-improved Youngstown summer school
YOUNGSTOWN
CEO Krish Mohip’s new summer school program has almost tripled last year’s student participation.
In summer 2016, Timothy Filipovich, chief of academics, accountability and assessment, said about 460 students participated and this summer 1,280 have registered so far.
This year’s summer school will offer three programs in an attempt to fit each child’s need.
Summer school is free. It includes enrichment, education and intervention opportunities as well as free meals and transportation.
One of the programs is for senior students who didn’t pass the Ohio Graduation Test requirements to receive a diploma.
“We call it an ‘OGT Blitz,’” Filipovich said. “This is our way of offering opportunity for intervention.”
The program is running from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. until Friday at Choffin Career and Technical Center, 200 E. Wood St.
Another summer school program is for high-school students who are behind on their credits to achieve graduation on time.
“They will take courses to make up credits online in the APEX curriculum,” Filipovich said.
The program will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Choffin, five days a week, now until June 30.
It is open to any student in grades nine through 12 who need to make up credits.
Another option in Mohip’s new summer school program for all students is intervention or enrichment opportunities for the state-mandated American Institutes for Research tests.
The AIR tests require students to accumulate a minimum of 18 total points on a number of tests to graduate.
“Some students don’t have enough points, so this is our way to offer intervention to get them there,” Filipovich said.
Included in this intervention is the opportunity to retake tests from July 10-28.
Each summer school program comes with free lunch and breakfast for all students.
Younger students, however, have longer summer school days – from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The full-day programs mirror the high schools’ summer school programs with instruction in the morning hours, but in the afternoon they will have the chance to experience a number of different activities.
Seventh- and eighth-graders, whose summer school will take place at Choffin to explore career opportunities, help out with community service projects at Mill Creek Park and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., go to see movies at Boardman Movies 8 and visit area museums.
“We want school to be a place they want to come to provided we have the right enrichment activities,” Filipovich said.
If a parent elects not to participate in enrichment – second half of the day – they have to arrange transportation for their child.
Elementary-school students – kindergarten through sixth grade – will have similar instruction with the exception of third-graders, who will focus on getting prepared to meet the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, Filipovich said.
The Third Grade Reading Guarantee is a program to identify students from kindergarten through third grade who are behind in reading, according to the Ohio Department of Education’s website. “Schools will provide help and support to make sure students are on track for reading success by the end of third grade,” he said.
Another facet of the program elementary students will be learning is social emotional learning.
“We are teaching strategies for kids to become reflective about who they are, what choices they make, how they impact others, how to de-escalate when you’re upset and how to choose another direction,” Filipovich said.
Other enrichment programs kindergartners through second-graders will participate in include Project PASS – Penguin Assistants for Student Success – which matches students with students enrolled in Youngstown State University’s Beeghly College of Education.
The goal of Project PASS is to ensure students have confidence to pass state tests.
Fourth- through sixth-graders will be introduced to Taft Elementary’s Project MORE, where students have the opportunity to work with and read with community members to practice their skills.
Filipovich encourages parents who received a letter for summer school for their child to enroll for the improvement of the student’s academic performance.
He said it is hard to pin down a number as to how much such a superior summer-school program is going to cost because of the sheer number of resources that go into it.
He guessed a low estimate of $300,000 to $350,000 in all, with $270,000 for teaching alone.
Roughly two teachers per grade in each building will be needed, along with two special-education teachers, a guidance counselor, a social worker and a building principal.
The funding source for this project will come out of Title I funds – federal dollars allocated to enhance school improvement.
Filipovich said some general-fund money will supplement what Title I funds cannot.
For information about summer school, visit any of the Youngstown City School buildings – except Youngstown Early College – where there will be enrollment forms available. Information also can be found at www.youngstowncityschools.org/.