Despite cutbacks, a pair of La Grande School District's summer programs are still vibrant
LA GRANDE — A big portion of La Grande School District’s summer education program is capsizing due to a loss of state funding.
Still, students and parents can take heart, two pieces of the program will remain strong this summer.
The La Grande School District will continue to provide an online summer option for high school students who need credit recovery to remain on track to graduate. Additionally, district funds will be used to fund the Extended School Year for special education students, according to La Grande School District Vice Superintendent Scott Carpenter.
The credit recovery program will be offered for a small fee and there will be no fee for students in the Extended School Year program, Carpenter said.
“We need the credit recovery program to help students graduate and we must have the Extended School Year program because of special education laws," he said.
The credit recovery program will run from June 17 to Aug. 17. About 70 La Grande High School students participate in the online credit recovery program each summer, Carpenter said. Many of the students are re-taking courses they were enrolled in earlier but did not earn credit for. In addition, some students will take new classes they can apply toward graduation.
The Extended School Year program will run from July 29 to Aug. 15 this summer and is for special education students who are selected for the program, according to Erika Pinkerton, the school district's director of student services. Students are chosen, Pinkerton said, on the basis of a number of factors, including how much they have regressed academically in past summers and how quickly they have caught up to where they were at the end of the previous school year.
Students are selected for the Extended School Year program by teams that may include a general education teacher, a special education teacher, a school district administrator, a school district representative and a parent.
A big loss
The continuation of the credit recovery and Extended School Year programs will not mask the fact the school district’s summer program offerings will be greatly diminished from the past two years when money from Oregon’s Summer Learning Grant program and COVID-19 relief funds were available to support a total of 120 three-day camps. The day camps, offered in 2022 and 2023, were on subjects including the arts and science, technology and math, Carpenter said.
The funding also paid for a summer JumpStart academic program for students in kindergarten through ninth grade and the Tiger Academy program that aimed to prepare selected students for their first year of high school.
The La Grande School District will receive no money from the state’s Summer Learning Grant program this summer and all of its COVID-19 funding will he gone, Carpenter said. A total of $30 million in Summer Learning Grant funding is being distributed to 48 school districts and 24 charter schools this year.
The La Grande School District will not receive any of the 2024 Summer Learning Grant funding because the state changed the criteria used to determine which school districts, education service districts and charter schools receive the grant funding. Now, districts with high percentages of “historically underserved" students rank higher on the priority and focal lists for funding, Carpenter said. Historically underserved students include those with Hispanic and Native American heritages, families experiencing poverty and special needs students, including those in special education.
Previously, the state provided Summer Learning Grant funding primarily on the basis of the number of students districts served.
La Grande School District Superintendent George Mendoza believes the way the summer funding is now being distributed is not fair. He said it is not right that about 25% of the 197 school districts in the state will receive all of the Summer Learning Grant funding and the rest in the districts in the state are shut out.
Mendoza pointed out that all school districts in Oregon have underserved and high needs students and all deserve to receive funding to help them.
“All students who need it should have access and opportunity for extended learning," he said.
Mendoza said the state’s formula for distributing Summer Learning Grant funding should be more equitable.
“That should be the goal," he said.
Mendoza wants all students who are not reaching grade level standards in some subjects to have the opportunity to receive this assistance over the summer.
“All students who need it should have access and opportunity for extended learning," he said.
