SitemapCEO Krish Mohip’s new
summer school program has almost tripled last year’s student participation.
In
summer 2016, Timothy Filipovich, chief of academics, accountability and
assessment, said about 460 students participated and this summer 1,280 have
registered so far. This year’s summer school will offer three programs in an attempt
to fit each child’s need. Summer school is free. It includes enrichment,
education and intervention opportunities as well as free meals and
transportation. One of the programs is for senior students who didn’t pass the
Ohio Graduation Test requirements to receive a diploma. “We call it an ‘OGT
Blitz,’” Filipovich said. “This is our way of offering opportunity for
intervention.” The program is running from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. until Friday
at Choffin Career and Technical Center, 200 E. Wood St. Another summer school
program is for high-school students who are behind on their credits to achieve graduation
on time. “They will take courses to make up credits online in the APEX
curriculum,” Filipovich said. The program will take place from 8:30 a.m. to
12:30 p.m. at Choffin, five days a week, now until June 30. It is open to any
student in grades nine through 12 who need to make up credits. Another option
in Mohip’s new summer school program for all students is intervention or
enrichment opportunities for the state-mandated American Institutes for
Research tests. The AIR tests require students to accumulate a minimum of 18
total points on a number of tests to graduate. “Some students don’t have enough
points, so this is our way to offer intervention to get them there,” Filipovich
said. Included in this intervention is the opportunity to retake tests from
July 10-28. Each summer school program comes with free lunch and breakfast for
all students. Younger students, however, have longer summer school days – from
8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The full-day programs mirror the high schools’ summer
school programs with instruction in the morning hours, but in the afternoon
they will have the chance to experience a number of different activities. Seventh-
and eighth-graders, whose summer school will take place at Choffin to explore
career opportunities, help out with community service projects at Mill Creek
Park and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., go to see movies at
Boardman Movies 8 and visit area museums. “We want school to be a place they
want to come to provided we have the right enrichment activities,” Filipovich
said. If a parent elects not to participate in enrichment – second half of the
day – they have to arrange transportation for their child. Elementary-school
students – kindergarten through sixth grade – will have similar instruction
with the exception of third-graders, who will focus on getting prepared to meet
the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, Filipovich said. The Third Grade Reading
Guarantee is a program to identify students from kindergarten through third
grade who are behind in reading, according to the Ohio Department of
Education’s website. “Schools will provide help and support to make sure
students are on track for reading success by the end of third grade,” he said.
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