White County K-8 students in danger of failing this school year can use summer school to advance to the next grade.
Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said Governor Bill Lee’s Summer School program allows for students to make good work.
“We have a lot of students that for one reason or another maybe didn’t do as much as they needed to do especially during the fall semester,” Dronebarger said. “Some of them didn’t work on VIP program like they were supposed to, and we had to bring them back, and they are behind. And so, this will be an opportunity to target what they need.”
Dronebarger said the four weeks of class begin June 7th. Dronebarger said the remaining components such as teachers, location and class sizes are still being planned.
“If you say to a family, ‘Okay, you’re going to give up the month of June in order to pass,’ and they say, ‘Well, we had this vacation planned.’ I just want you to know before those phone calls come up they don’t have to come, but this is their opportunity to make up for what they lost during the regular school year.”
The funding for the summer school program comes from Governor Bill Lee’s learning loss initiative that passed in February. Dronebarger said school will be five days a week of full school days.
“There is a law in the books already that if you are not proficient in 3rd grade to read then you have to be retained and go through a remediation program in the summer, but we haven’t really been able to adhere that. No one in the state has, because there wasn’t funding for summer school.”
Students that fail two out of the four core subjects qualify to be retained. Dronebarger said students on the cusp of that should be receiving notification from their school. The White County School Board unanimously approved the procedure Thursday.
In other business, the school board approved its budget plan for the second round of COVID money. The majority of the $3.9 million dollars will be used for capital improvements.
Dronebarger said that includes roof repairs to White County Middle School and Northfield Elementary School and window replacements at Bon De Croft Elementary. About $500,000 of the funding will be used for a new school bus and laptops.
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