School isn't over for 4,000 U-46 summer students

Forget those lazy days of summer.

More than 4,000 Elgin Area School District U-46 students were back in school last week.

About 3,200 students from kindergarten through seventh grades are attending the district's summer intervention program, Coordinator of Recruitment Activities Chris Dennison said.

Teachers identified the students for extra help based on grades and scores on the district's internal Measure of Academic Progress Test, administered to all third-through eighth-graders.

Another 850 students in the district's middle and high schools are attending classes to recover credits, Dennison said.

U-46 also offers a bridge program for 150 incoming freshman who need extra help.

The district's pilot bridge program last summer, attended by 50 incoming freshman, "never really got off the ground," Dennison said.

This year, bridge programs were a key component of Bartlett, Elgin, Larkin and Streamwood high schools' restructuring plans, submitted to the state in May.

Four days a week, students in the bridge program work to enrich their reading skills. Each Thursday, Dennison said, students spend the morning at their home high schools, talking with guidance counselors, learning the building's layout and exploring their new school's library.

"Just being able to get from A to Z can make your life easier in high school," Dennison said.

U-46 limited the number of students each school could nominate for summer school by factoring in the number of students that qualify for free and reduced lunch, and looking at the school's overall achievement levels, she said.

"You might have a school that doesn't have as many free and reduced lunch students, but low test scores gives them a bit of a bounce," Dennison said.

Summer school class sizes are smaller than in the academic year -- kept between 15 and 20 students, Dennison said.

The state gave U-46 $720,000 to fund summer school programs this year, Dennison said.

The federal government also provides some summer school funding through grants for bilingual students.

The district foots the rest of the tab, including the cost of operating and maintaining the buildings in use during the summer.

Total program cost, Chief Financial Officer John Prince said, will be $1.7 million.