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Mixed Feelings About Summer School Opportunities Expected

We expect parents to have mixed feelings regarding summer school opportunities for their children.

The Jamestown Public Schools District will offer its LEAP program, which mixes summer activities with literacy activities while Clymer and Panama school officials recently discussed their own enhanced summer programs.

Schools have battled the “summer slide” for years, but those efforts are taking on a new form this year after COVID-19 has limited in-person instruction for many school districts for more than a year. The Panama, Clymer and Jamestown programs are open to any child who wants to participate. For Clymer and Panama, that is a departure from the mandatory summer school for struggling students. The smaller districts are planning new summer programs that aim to bolster a child’s education in a way that is also fun and more like a summer camp than classroom instruction. And, for schools that have been largely remote, in-person summer learning opportunities may help make up for a child’s lost time with childhood chums.

We expect parents to have mixed feelings about these programs. COVID-19 has changed a lot of things children had come to see as normal. Some parents will surely feel their children need a summer free of COVID-related stress. Other parents will feel their child needs some help catching up on things they weren’t able to learn during the last two school years.

Neither group of parents is wrong. They must do what is best for their families.

But if ever there was a time for parents to be on the same page as their child’s teachers, it is now. Before making a decision, reach out to your child’s school. See if the program being could benefit your child. Then make the decision to take advantage of summer learning.

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