TRHS summer school opens in July for limited number

Contrary to original plans, some Twin Rivers High School students will be able to participate in summer school.

The district decided in May not to offer summer school due to budget and COVID-19 concerns. While that will remain true for most students, the school board approved an adjustment to that plan that will serve 40 high school students to help keep them on track to graduate.

Summer school will run July 20 through Aug. 14 with on-campus students attending from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Christina Miller, guidance counselor, said she, Principal Misti Lovelace and other administration put their heads together trying to figure out a way to help high school students who need to complete credits or recover credits in order to stay on track to graduate on time.

“We had tried to reach out to area schools, but they all had limited summer school seats also and didn’t have any available room for our students who are needing to attend summer school,” Miller said. “Of course, at the high school level, summer school helps them complete credits that they might struggle with during the school year; helps them catch up if they’ve failed some classes or lost credit due to attendance ... So, we hated to not have anything available.”

The group appealed to the school board last month with a small summer school plan using resources the district already has, Miller said, and received approval Friday from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The district will take a mixed approach. Courses will be largely self-guided. Based on what credits they need, 20 students will do online courses and 20 will have on-campus courses. The on-campus students will be supervised by a volunteer teacher in one of two computer labs, but their courses will be on the computer through a program hosted by the school, Miller explained. They will be socially distanced at computer stations.

The teachers are largely there to help keep students on track and answer questions. These students will also be served breakfast and lunch.

Miller said she will follow up with all applicants about seat availability and can help brainstorm solutions to obstacles they face such as transportation to campus.

The 20 online students will be expected to complete the coursework in the same amount of time, but it is more self-guided as they can do coursework at any point during the day. These courses will be through a program the district plans to use this school year for Spanish courses.

Miller said between these two options, they expect to be able to fill most needs students have when it comes to courses and graduation requirements.

Since they have a limited number of seats, spots will be filled first with those who need recovery courses to graduate online or follow through with plans such as attending technical school and a preference given to upper classmen. Students can send in their request for one of these spots through applications emailed to them Monday.

“It’s really limited, I wish we could offer it to more than just 40 of our students, but it should be enough seats for the students who need it to be promoted or stay on track with their individual career and academic plans,” Miller said. “It should be enough to get those upper classmen covered ... Every little bit helps. We just want to help as many as we can.”