Summer school enrollment at Jefferson City Public Schools went up 40 percent this year after officials allowed open enrollment for all preschool through eighth-grade students.
In the past, Sheila Logan, assistant superintendent for social services, got calls from families with several children they wanted to attend summer school, but only one of them qualified. Only students who needed remediation were eligible, but now, any parent who feels their child can benefit from the extra time can attend.
During the first week of summer school, 2,786 students were in attendance - up 804 from last year. JCPS is also offering transportation for the first time this year and will bus students to the Boys & Girls Club and YMCA child care if they are enrolled in those programs.
The district's summer school serves any student who lives within the district's boundaries, so some parochial school students also attend.
The enrollment was so high this year, JCPS had to hire additional staff, including teachers from outside the district, Logan said.
"There are three main reasons why we (opened enrollment)," Logan said. "One: it keeps kids in the learning environment longer. Two: it gives families options for support through June because we offer free breakfast and lunch for all students. Three: it's fiscally smart for the district because it gets us the attendance hours we need for funding."
Summer school is basically a 16-day extension of the regular school year, but it gives teachers the opportunity to work in depth on the skills their students are lacking since they don't necessarily have a curriculum they have to get through, said Christopher Schmitz, an elementary summer school principal.
Teachers focus on English language arts for at least two and a half hours a day and mathematics for an hour and a half at minimum. They build the rest of their day around social studies and science, with some social skills activities during their directed recreation activities, a new component this year.
They're also testing out a social skills curriculum that will be used next year when the district overhauls its behavior supports. By working with small groups of students, facilitators are teaching them how to take turns, to be a good friend and to respond appropriately when another student does something they don't like.
Some students who were in the elementary school transition rooms are continuing what they were working on with counselors during the year with the new curriculum.
Reading recovery classes are also being continued for about 20 first-grade students who are finishing what they started during the school year.
Districtwide, the classes run four days a week from 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and will continue until June 23. The number of hours and days summer school encompasses has fluctuated in the past, Logan said.
This year, the district decided to have Fridays off, since that day seemed to conflict with a lot of families' schedules. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requires summer school run for 120 hours, but the schedule is left up to districts.
Logan said the highest populations of summer school students are preschoolers at 402 and incoming freshmen at 298.
"I think families are interested in getting (their preschoolers) acclimated," she said. "Incoming freshmen are most interested in getting their health and physical education classes out of the way."
At the high school level, students are either earning credits in health or physical education or doing credit recovery, and they can earn up to two credits.
Schmitz has been a summer school principal for six years, and he said this is one of the best years so far.
"It's going fantastic," he said. "The nice thing is that everyone is at their home buildings. Before, we had construction at some of the schools, so we had to move some of the kids."