COVINGTON, Ky. (WKRC) - Covington City Schools Director of Community and Family Engagement Stacie Strotman says the district has 3,800 students.
Strotman says there are typically around 500 students in its summer-learning program. She says the program is a proven success for those who go to class.
"We know that students who attend our program 10 times or more actually have summer growth in both reading and in math, which is pretty great because, historically, students who live in some vulnerable communities often have summer-learning loss,” Strotman said.
Strotman says this summer the number of students is expected to be around 850.
“We actually call it Camp Covington because we want it to be something that every student within our school district feels like they can participate in. So, we open it up to all students. We have a very rigorous program for reading and math, but we also have a lot of youth development opportunities. So, we're going to go hard with the academics, but we're going to also go hard with a lot of recreational and enrichment opportunities for our students so we can really address the whole child each summer,” Strotman said.
The Kentucky Department of Education is making several recommendations for districts. They include holding a summer program for five to six weeks, offering small class sizes and have a mix of math, reading and enrichment activities. Lastly, KDE says programs must address students’ social, emotional and behavioral needs.
Strotman says the district is prepared to offer the students the extra support to make up for what's being termed "COVID-learning loss."
"With everything that our students have experienced this past year, not just academically but socially and mentally, we feel like this is the best opportunity for families to get their students well prepared for the fall. We are in the business of catching kids up at Covington, and, so, this is not new for us and we are being very intentional about how we do programming this summer so that there's a seamless transition between the school year summer and getting them ready for the fall,” Strotman said.
Covington City Schools isn’t the only district preparing for a larger summer program.
"Just about every school district within Northern Kentucky is doing some type of summer programming. We are very resource-rich in Covington. We have a school district that has embraced summer programs for...over 25 years. Our community has embraced summer programming, and, so, we were ready for this type of an opportunity for our students, and we were just able to enhance it a little bit more to meet the need, but every school district in the region is planning some type of programming to get their kids caught up,” Strotman said.