The Everett Public Schools (EPS) has opened up registration for a robust program of summer offerings this week, expanding the programs to four schools for those in grades K-8.
Supt. Priya Tahiliani informed the School Committee on Monday that the district’s long-awaited summer learning and programming has been set and staffed by teachers within the district. Registration for the programming began on Tuesday, she said.
The K-8 in-person Summer Program will be staffed by EPS teachers and coaches from July 6 to Aug. 6 and will have 1,200 slots available free of charge. There is no pre-registration and this year the summer programming will be at four schools instead of one.
“The Summer of 2021 programming will be at the Parlin, Lafayette, Keverian and Whittier Schools,” she said. “That a departure from what the district did previously with the summer program at one site. Our mission is to have students re-integrate, have fun and re-connect. It will be a program where they can socialize and learn.”
The summer programming for schools all over the state – particularly for urban districts like Everett where students were remote for most of the year – has been highly anticipated and is seen by educators as a time when perhaps students might be able to recover the learning they lost with the limitations of the remote model.
The five-week program will have an academic component from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with “meaningful” math, reading, and science classes taught by EPS teachers. The afternoons will have a blend of fun programming such as sports, Arts & Crafts, painting, clubs, yoga and other things. The fun programming will be different at each school, so parents and student are encouraged to look at the fun offerings before choosing their summer location.
Everett High School will have a Summer Enrichment Academy from July 6 to Aug. 7 and the intent is to maintain or reverse the learning lost during COVID-19. The ELL program will also have a remote credit recovery program and Project Read from Jun 29 to July 29 with synchronous and asynchronous learning.
Zumix, an East Boston based organization, will also be offering programming at the high school in arts, African drumming, radio and drama from June 28 to July 29 – Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to noon.
Rising ninth graders can participate in the Accelerator program offered by Livius from 10 a.m. to noon, Monday to Thursday. Tahiliani said there would be a 5:1 student-teacher ratio in that program to ensure plenty of teacher attention for students.
Already, classroom teachers and Parent Liaisons have begun reaching out to parents and multi-lingual Zoom meetings on all the programming will be taking place very soon.