Warwick to offer free summer school program

By Matt Bower
Posted 6/7/16

Summer school classes will be held at the Gorton Junior High School building this July at no cost to students. The recent announcement comes after discussion about whether or not Warwick Public Schools would continue to run summer school

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Warwick to offer free summer school program

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Summer school classes will be held at the Gorton Junior High School building this July at no cost to students.

The recent announcement comes after discussion about whether or not Warwick Public Schools would continue to run summer school following a decision by the state that school districts can no longer charge students to attend summer programs.

“Late last fall, early winter, there was a decision by the state that districts couldn’t charge for summer school, so we had to contemplate how we would move forward,” said Superintendent Philip Thornton during a phone interview Friday. “My colleagues started working through that and determining what we would offer and how.”

Thornton said there was talk of doing a senior portion for students needing to “get over the hump” to graduate, but ultimately the school department decided to offer summer school to all students.

“Over the spring, we were following the case and there was a discussion that RIDE [Rhode Island Department of Education] might appeal the decision, but we decided this is something we have to do and put it in at no cost to students,” Thornton said.

The summer school program will be held at Gorton, 69 Draper Avenue, from July 5 through Aug. 1. Veterans assistant principal Timothy Kane will direct the program.

The first class will be held from 7:30 to 8:55 a.m., the second class will be from 8:55 to 10:20 a.m., and the third class will be from 10:20 to 11:45 a.m. Courses offered will include English 1-4, algebra 1 and 2, geometry, physical science, chemistry, biology, world history, U.S. history and western civilization.

All courses not offered within the summer school program must be made up through an approved academic program.

High school students taking summer school are required to complete one digital portfolio assignment per course as part of their requirements.

Thornton said summer school would run the same as it has previously, with the exception of a new pilot program this year.

“We’re looking at a new pilot opportunity called Ingenuity, which is a computer component where if only a few students sign up for a class and there aren’t enough to run the class, they can take the class online,” he said. “This will be done onsite, in the classroom with a teacher working with the kids. For example, if we had two students that needed to pass Italian, we probably wouldn’t hire an Italian teacher, but they could take it online.”

Thornton said some districts were already offering summer school at no cost, while others were charging. In cases where districts charged, like Warwick, Thornton said the summer school program was self-sustaining, meaning the money that was charged to students went to pay for the program.

“It was cost-neutral, so there was no profit,” he said.

Thornton said it cost approximately $50,000 last year to run summer school.

“It’s hard to model what it will run this year because you can’t assume it will be the same as it was when it was cost-neutral, but this is the right thing to do,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes as kids sign up.”

Thornton said summer school is not in the budget.

“This is not budgeted, but at the end of the day we need to run it,” he said. “We will reconcile the budget and adjust it as we move forward.”

When asked if construction work at Gorton, as it’s prepared to transition administrative offices from the Warwick Lake Avenue building, would interfere with the summer school program, Thornton said, “Administration adjustments and movements will take place after the schools are consolidated. The first priority for Gorton is summer school.”

Registration for the summer school program will be held at Gorton on Friday, July 1 from 8 a.m. to noon and from 5 to 7 p.m.

For more information on the program, call 734-3200 ext. 303. Summer school principal Timothy Kane can also be reached by email at timothy.kane@warwickschools.org between now and July 1.

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