Attending school in the Los Altos School District during summer vacation defies the myth that summer school is four additional weeks of grueling and boring work.
LASD runs four different primary and upper-grade summer school programs on separate campuses. Two of the programs are enrichment programs, which offer unique courses with narrowed interests such as cooking or scrapbooking. The other two programs are academies designed for students who need extra instruction before advancing a grade.
The LASD Board of Trustees visited the campuses July 13 and came away impressed with the uniqueness and the children’s enjoyment of the programs.
“It’s fun for the teachers to teach out of the curriculum,” said Patty Weisman, formerly Patty Boettcher, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. Weisman was married earlier this summer.
The enrichment programs boast classes in robotics, art, drama, forensic sciences, critical thinking, dinosaur science, French, Spanish, scrapbooking and cooking.
“We don’t get to do this stuff during the year too much, so it’s been fun,” said Ellen Kraska, a fourth-grade teacher at Loyola Elementary School.
The academies, which focus on helping students strengthen their academic weaknesses, run programs for remedial literacy, English language learners, multisensory learning, phonetic learning, math, reading and writing.
“It addresses the state standards, but does so in a different way,” Weisman said. “They never repeat the regular instruction taught the rest of the year, and they are making great progress.”
Weisman said one of the main difficulties the academy programs face is making sure the students attend every day. Students often miss a day or two due to scheduled family trips. She said the work completed in some of the courses cannot be made up at home.
The English Language Learners (ELL) program has doubled in size and runs on two campuses. The district had several students start the ELL class this year speaking no English at all. Board members said they were impressed to see how well the students were coming along toward the end of their summer instruction.
One of the ELL programs instructs English through interactions with other ELL students and two-hour “mainstreaming” sessions every day to immerse the students in the language in other courses.
From watercolor paints inspired by Georgia O’Keefe to a class of children trying to solve a mock crime investigation, the summer school programs through the district offer classes for every child’s interests.
Children in the cooking class prepared fondue, both chocolate and cheese, for visiting board members, and the French class sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” in French. Students in the robotics class explained how they created programs to control their robots, and the critical thinking class showed the board how their games and activities worked.
“Summer school isn’t just for those who need it anymore,” said Bill Cooper, board vice president. “It’s just a killer program.”
