“It’s surreal,” said Dr. Bret Apthorpe, JPS superintendent, standing outside Lincoln Elementary School as students were being dropped off in droves.

LEAP, or Learning Enrichment and Academic Progress, is an expansion of Jamestown’s summer literacy program that was in place for several years. A major difference between the two iterations is the sheer amount of students that will be included. LEAP intends on offering summer literacy and enrichment for more than 400 students compared to the 134 students that were involved last summer.

At Lincoln, smiling students and parents were greeted by Apthorpe and Katie Russo, Lincoln principal. Apthorpe said being at the school gave him “a really good feeling.”

“Today’s a very special day for the entire Jamestown school family,” he said.

The program was announced in March 2018 at a community forum meeting inside the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown. Apthorpe presented the program with the goal of involving 400 students in front of local organizations and leaders. As of Monday, there were 430 students enrolled in the summer program.

The program will continue to Aug. 23 each week Monday through Friday at Bush, Love, Fletcher, Ring and Lincoln Elementary schools.

Apthorpe said when he approached the community 18 months ago, it took the entire community to be “all in” in order for the successful launch.

“Whenever you do something new, you’re taking a risk and you’re asking these groups to take risks and to go on a journey with you,” he said.

The summer programming will include literacy intervention provided by 30 Jamestown teachers with six staff members at each school. Apthorpe said implementation of the program will look to combine literacy and fun.

Citing educational research, he said students often regress in terms of literacy during the summer months. In addition, he said a large portion of Jamestown students enter the fifth grade at a second grade reading level.

“Our hope here is to have a literacy rich program for these kids that will prevent them from falling behind and that will keep them on grade level,” Apthorpe said.

Several field trips are planned for students participating in the program as well. Trips include traveling to the Erie Zoo, Midway State Park, Presque Isle State Park, the Audubon Community Nature Center, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute for Natural History and other outdoors walking field trips at each individual school. Chautauqua Striders will also visit the program at various times to provide learning enrichment activities.

Funding contributors include The Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation, The United Way of Southern Chautauqua County and The Lenna Foundation. The YWCA, YMCA, The Winifred Crawford Dibert Boys & Girls Club and other area community-based organizations will be involved throughout the summer.

Jeff Kroon, Boys and Girls Club executive director, was present at Lincoln where his organization will be providing services.

“This is all new for us and all new for these kids,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for our organization to partner with Jamestown Public Schools to serve these kids in a year-round format. It’s really a great thing.”

Kroon said the emphasis will be on making the program as fun as possible ensuring students will continue to enjoy showing up each day.