Summer School Finished With 313 Students

The Crawford County R-1 summer school program ended this month with 313 students in attendance.

The summer school program began with 378, a drop of 65 students over the period.

Assistant principal Jessica Becker said it’s typical for attendance to drift from beginning to end.

She said 36% of the student population attended summer school, which was up from 20% last year.

In 2019, 37% of students attended.

The daily attendance rate was over 95%.

Bourbon utilizes the Summer Journey program through Catapult. Becker said it provides plenty of “hands-on activities” for students.

At the high school, the program focuses on collaboration and teamwork.

Students also can do credit recovery.

“Students earned multiple credits to get back on track with their peers,” Becker said.

While the Summer Journey program is popular, Becker said they will be reassessing its use for next year.

“It’s a question if we’ll use it,” she said. “There are lot of wonderful activities, but it’s overwhelming to plan and prepare.”

Becker also cited how costly the program is.

“Is it cost efficient?” she asked, noting that other districts using Summer Journey are bigger with more students enrolled.

The district may just organize their own curriculum. While it would provide flexibility, Becker said it can be inconsistent.

“We also have no supplies,” she said.

The Summer Journey program provides gift cards to those students who stick around.

If Bourbon dropped the program, Becker said they would have to acquire funding to buy those gift cards.

Board president Stephen Waldron agreed with Becker on the issues of continuing Summer Journey.

“We’ve been told (at conferences) that districts use the program for two to three years and bail,” he said.