State grant brings back Newfield summer school

This year, Newfield Central School District (CSD) launched its Summer Learning Academy, a three-year summer school program intended to help elementary school students catch up with their peers.

In March, Melissa Addy, who will be Newfield CSD’s dean of students in the 2022-23 school year, met with Superintendent Eric Hartz, who said that the district had received a Loss of Learning grant that will fund the program.

“One of the components of the third federal COVID stimulus package, also known as the American Rescue Plan (ARP), included grant monies to schools,” said David Shaw, the district’s business administrator, in an email. “NYS was awarded these funds and then allocated them to school districts across the state based on their formulas. Through this grant, the Newfield CSD was allocated a total of $159,415 of ARP funds specifically for summer programming. Funds must be expensed by 9/30/2024, so we anticipate summer programming for 2022, 2023 and 2024. The three years will be paid for in full by the ARP grant.”

According to Addy, Newfield has not had a summer school program for over 15 years due to lack of funding.

“I don’t think we had enough money in our budget to do anything additional than just our regular school hours,” Addy said.

Addy, who serves as summer school principal, got involved as part of her administrative internship for her building leadership internship. She said she is unsure of whether she will continue as principal of the summer school next summer or the summer after that, saying that that is Hartz’s decision. Nevertheless, she expressed appreciation for the program.

“Any additional support we can give our students is a benefit, so I’m thankful that we were able to do it this year,” Addy said.

The summer school runs from 8 to 11 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays for four weeks, from July 11 to Aug. 4, with a 90-minute reading and writing block and a 60-minute math block, although subsequent years’ classes may begin or end at different times.

Classes are held entirely in person in Newfield Elementary School, with breakfast, lunch and transportation provided for the students. The safety protocols are the same as in the 2021-22 school year. For example, students who test positive for COVID-19 must wear masks when they return to school after isolation.

Seven teachers and one aide are taking part in the program, with one teacher per grade level except for first grade, which has two sections. The teachers applied to the program and were interviewed before they were accepted.

About 50 elementary school students from kindergarten through fifth grade are taking part in the Summer Learning Academy, and there are no more than 10 students per class in order to keep the student-teacher ratio low. Teachers can recommend students for the program based on their assessment results throughout the year, such as STAR reading and math assessments.

Addy plans on doing assessments at the end of the Summer Learning Academy to gauge how much progress the students have made and to collect feedback that the district can use to improve the program. If necessary, the district might add additional staff or extend the program, among other options.

“The hope would be that all of the students that started the program below grade level would improve by the end of the program based on those assessments,” Addy said.

While the Summer Learning Academy started only recently, Addy said the first few days have gone well due to the preparation work the district has done since March and the highly skilled group of teachers involved. She said that so far, the students are excited to be taking part in the program and she has not received any complaints.

“I think they’ve gone very well,” Addy said of the first few days. “The dismissal was smooth, the transition. The kids seemed to be happy to be here, and we haven’t had any issues at all.”

Once the Summer Learning Academy program ends after the summer of 2024, when the grant funding expires, the district must apply for additional funding if they want to continue the program.

“I think that’s the struggle with most school districts, is weighing out how much can we add to support students and how much can we actually afford,” Addy said.

Addy said learning loss is a widespread problem, one that she hopes that the Summer Learning Academy will address.

“I think it’s pretty standard across the country,” Addy said. “All school-age kids are struggling and did have loss of learning, but that’s why it’s so beneficial that we’re able to provide this at this current time.”

Newfield Notes appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.

In brief:

Ken Serfass re-enacts history

Ken Serfass will visit the Newfield Fire Hall to speak about General Ulysses S. Grant’s friendship with President Abraham Lincoln on July 22 at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served.

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