Thousands of Lee County students attending summer school this year

Today is the last day of school for Lee County students, but 25,000 children will be staying in the classroom for the summer.

One of the biggest things the District wants parents to know is that masks will become voluntary starting with summer school, so if your child does not want to wear one, they will not have to. Both virtual and hybrid classes will be offered, so your children can have that face-to-face learning with teachers if you feel they need it.

“We have summer school for any student that wants it,” said Rob Spicker, spokesman for the School District of Lee County. “It’s a real simple program, and it’s an enhanced virtual program 45 minutes a week and reading 45 minutes a week in math. We’ve got more than 9,000 students already enrolled in that; they have access to a teacher during the program, but they can work at their own pace and just keep up and keep the brain active.”

SDLC says it has spent a lot of time evaluating data from the last half of the school year, and it has extended special invitations to those students who it feels may have fallen behind during the pandemic, like those kindergartners who are just starting to learn math and reading. If you have a child in that age group, working on those two subjects with them over the summer could be a great way to help them stay on track.

“Keeping tabs, yes,” Spicker said. “From the district level to the school level, watching their academic process, identifying those that need interventions and developing a plan for them if they’re not part of our summer school program.”

Outgoing Superintendent Dr. Greg Adkins said in his interview with WINK News that overcoming this learning gap will be the biggest challenge the District faces, so this is one way to help close that gap.

The District encourages anyone still interested in summer programs to call their child’s school and get them signed up. It will be accepting students until June 28. It also wants to remind parents that it will not be offering Lee Home Connect anymore, so anybody that wishes to enroll their child in virtual school for the fall will need to apply for the Lee Virtual School option by July 15.