For summer school, Jefferson County school districts will continue using online instruction and other alternative teaching methods developed since school buildings closed in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are going to offer some virtual courses to our high school students for credit recovery,” said Northwest Superintendent Desi Kirchhofer, who also is president of the Jefferson County Superintendents Association. “We haven’t made a final decision on whether or not we can extend virtually to lower grade levels. An in-person summer school would not be a consideration until July, and even then, I don’t know if we can bring kids in person and be prepared to handle the physical distancing that would need to happen.”
On May 8, Fox announced it, too, will offer virtual summer school programs, following recommendations from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials. The Jefferson County Health Department also has recommended that the district continue to keep its buildings, tracks and playgrounds closed to the public through June 30, Fox Superintendent Nisha Patel said in a written statement.
For summer school, Fox will offer two programs for students entering kindergarten through eighth grade – K-8 Summer School Lite or Virtual Summer Academy. Students have until May 27 to sign up for classes.
Summer School Lite will help students with math and reading skills and will consist of two 10-day sessions – one from June 1 through June 12 and the other from July 27 through Aug. 7.
The virtual academy will cover material typically covered in the final quarter of the previous school year and will have two 10-day sessions – June 15 through June 26 and July 13 through July 24.
For both summer school programs, class sizes will be limited to no more the 20 students to provide teachers time to meet virtually with each student one-on-one.
A variety of 20-day-long courses for the Fox district’s high school students will be held in English language arts, math, science, social studies, health, physical education, music, art, career exploration, child development and personal finance. Students will receive high school credit for the courses.
“I believe under the circumstances with COVID-19 this is our best solution,” Patel said. “We always have to keep the safety of our students and staff in mind when developing any plans. Our goal at this time is to help in minimizing transmissions of cases.
“By providing summer classes virtually, we can lower the risk of the virus spreading and still serve our students academically. It is, of course, not ideal, but we feel it meets our needs given these unprecedented circumstances.”
The De Soto School District will offer online summer courses for students who will be entering seventh grade through 12th grade. The classes will be held from June 1-June 30.
Superintendent Josh Isaacson said the district also is looking into whether it can offer on-site classes for students in kindergarten through sixth grade in July.
“As we move forward, we will make a determination if those plans need to change based on what we are seeing and guidance from the Health Department and the state,” Isaacson said.
