Summer school to hold two sessions

This year’s summer school program in the Cedar Grove-Belgium School District is following typical study skills advice: work for a shorter time but more frequently.

The School Board on Feb. 10 approved holding two sessions instead of the usual one with classes on Mondays through Thursdays instead of five days per week to draw more teachers.

“The summer school program is really driven by the number of staff members who are designing courses and willing to teach,” elementary school Principal Jeff Kondrakiewicz, who leads summer school, said.

“If I had to teach on Fridays in August, I would have definitely passed.”

Asking teachers to teach summer school, he said, leads to a “hesitant agreement” when they hear it is held five days per week. Most districts, he said, run four-day weeks.

A 12-day session will be held from June 14 to July 1 and an eight-day session from Aug. 9 to 19 with courses starting at 8, 9:20 and 10:40 a.m.

What remains the same are the skill builder sessions in reading, language arts and math that are driven by teacher recommendations, along with enrichment courses that serve as “kind of the hook” for students to attend the core classes, Kondrakiewicz said.

“It’s easier to convince your kids to go to reading if they can also play football for an hour and a half,” he said.

The pay rate for teachers will remain at $23 per hour.

The courses are free for all district residents — non-residents pay a fee —and include swim lessons. Some parents, Kondrakiewicz said, don’t want to attend summer school if they have to pay and don’t feel comfortable asking for assistance.

The summer school budget will cover the costs of the courses, and providing them for free avoids a “logistical mess” of paperwork for the district office, Kondrakiewicz said.

He said he hopes the demand for summer school will be high after skipping the program last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and hopes the changes draw more teachers to participate.

“We have a lot of talented staff, a lot of great ideas,” he said.