D308 Plans To Create Summer School Program For Math, Reading Help

OSWEGO, IL — As students face challenges to learning due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Oswego School District 308 is planning to create a summer school program to help with that.

According to the plan presented to the board of education during its Monday meeting, the district has received an additional $495,000 in federal Title 1 funds that must be used or lost prior to Sept. 1. The money cannot be used to pay existing bills and must be used to support struggling and/or at risk students, according to Associate Superintendent for Educational Services Faith Dahlquist.

She said the administrators want to use the funds "to create a robust summer school program for students that are behind in reading and/or math."

Usually the federal funds are allocated only to schools that fall under the Title 1 designation. But the district has received special accommodations to use the funds at all of its schools, provided it identifies and use the funds to support students struggling in math, reading, or social/emotional learning, identified through "teacher identification and assessment," Dahlquist said.

Administrators estimate that the program could serve approximately 2,200 students, utilizing four schools as summer school sites with transportation provided. Committees would also be formed to assist with the following:

• Length of the program (likely five weeks)
• Length of each day - for example, each day could run from 9:00 - 11:40 a.m. with approximately 50 minutes of math, 90 minutes of ELA and a short recess
• Materials needed
• Hiring process for overall principal, admin for each site and teachers
• Coordination with special education summer schools
• Criteria for student invitation
• Process to monitor effectiveness of program

Dahlquist said that the district is thinking about a remote learning component for its summer school program, but the majority of instruction would be offered through in-person learning.

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