The Saugerties Central School District may be a couple of weeks into the 2023-24 school year, but they’re still looking back at a successful summer.
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Gwendolyn Roraback led a presentation during the School Board meeting held on Tuesday, September 12, discussing the various ways the district helped students get the most out of their summer break.
“We had several different programs this summer to engage students and also avoid summer loss,” Roraback said. “We had our traditional academic summer school 7-12, we had our academic summer school for K-6, we continued for the second year in a row an enrichment program that went kindergarten through the high school, and then we continued with our Title III ENL program that was housed at Cahill (Elementary).”
Saugerties Junior High Assistant Principal Chelsea Defino and Saugerties High School Assistant Principal Patricia Pipitone served as co-principals of the district’s secondary summer school, which had a total enrollment of 96 students, 33 in grades 7-8, 63 in 9-12.
“The name of the game here was really flexibility and giving students multiple different opportunities to obtain credit that they were not able to obtain during the school year for whatever reason,” said Defino. “This was both to help foster their academic and emotional growth.”
Junior high students were offered mathematics and STEM courses, as well as humanities, with English offered in grades 9-11, global studies in 9-10, and living environment, algebra and geometry, Spanish, physical education, and ENL courses throughout.
“One of the really exciting things we were able to do over the summer was our flexible credit recovery model through our APEX (virtual learning) program,” Defino said. “So students were able to take classes like science or math classes, or business electives that we didn’t necessarily have the faculty to teach over the summer, so that was a great success.”
The senior high program had a course credit acquisition rate of 89 percent, while the junior high rate was 88 percent. Defino said that attendance was an issue for students who weren’t successful.
“We did have an attendance policy where students had to meet a minimum number of classes to obtain credit,” she said. “On the data that you see over there some of the students who didn’t obtain credit it was mostly due to attendance issues”
Some students in the secondary summer school program took Regents exams, with varying degrees of success. Both students who took the Algebra 2 exam passed, and the sole student taking a U.S. History test also passed. Elsewhere, just half of the four students who took the ELA exam passed, and 43 percent of students taking the Global History test passed, with the number bumped up to 57 percent on special appeal. Of the 14 students who took the Algebra 1 exam, none passed, with the number increased to 57 percent on special appeal. 10 students took the Living Environment exam, with just two passing on special appeal.
Defino said some of the poor test results were not necessarily a reflection of the summer school program.
“New York State had a safety net that helped a lot of our students, so we really didn’t have many students need to take the Regents examine in August,” she said. “And many of them who did take it chose not to attend summer school for whatever reason, so some of the courses where you see maybe one or two students took the test and did not pass, those students chose not to enroll in summer school.”
The secondary summer school program also included embedded social-emotional learning, with a social worker and SRO (school resource officer) working collaboratively to address student needs, including restorative circles covering self-awareness, social awareness, responsible decision making, relationship skills, and both physical and mental wellness.
Shannon Molyneaux, principal of Cahill Elementary School, served as the principal of the K-6 Summer Academy. In reviewing the slide show presentation, Molyneaux noted the photographs of the students engaged in various activities.
“When I look at these pictures I see hands-on intentional learning,” she said. “Not only are the kids smiling but they’re actually really happy to be there. That I can attest to, that and they’re engaged and they’re doing these different activities, and it was like that for the entire three weeks that we were there. We really packed in a lot of content in a short period of time.”
The goal of the Summer Academy was to help students avoid an “academic summer slide,” using standards-based interventions in literacy and mathematics, to increase joy in learning, and to build confidence and increase social-emotional capacities. The program’s theme was curiosity.
A total of 74 students in K-6 were enrolled in the Summer Academy, with 23 staff, including 13 teachers, one ENL teacher, seven teaching assistants, a social worker, and a nurse.
Attendance of those enrolled varied between 90-95 percent across all grades, with both ELA and math averages rising — in some cases significantly — in pre- and post-course assessments.
In the summer enrichment program there were 220 total students, 156 in grades K-5. Twenty-two classes were offered across the entire program, including creative movement and science in the kitchen for grades K-2; mini drama club and “Lettuce Turnip the Beet to Our School Menus” in grades 3-5; relief prints on clay and music video production in grades 7-12; and Sawyer Media Mania and hiking and other outdoor activities in grades 9-12.
The presentation included a letter from a parent of a 6-year old in the summer enrichment program.
“I sat down with my son and his 8-year-old cousin and asked for a full report for the purposes of this letter,” wrote the parent. “I learned the following: They absolutely loved it! They described in great detail making fizzy ice cubes and the process of using lollipops to create their own unique flavors. One day they were little explorers and used physical movement and balance to weave their way through a taped course to find treasure. I know they learned during these hands on experiences because they could explain every step of the activity and apply it to the academic-lesson at hand. My son learns best in this type of engaging environment and I am very thankful that he was able to participate in the program! It was a wonderful way to not only learn, but spend time with friends and great teachers over the summer!”
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