WILLMAR -- More than 100 Willmar elementary students are getting a head start on math and reading for the coming school year.
The students are taking advantage of a new split schedule for summer school -- three weeks in June and another two weeks in August.
In the past, Willmar has offered a five-week summer school program in June and early July.
The hope is that the August session, which ends Friday, will give the children a chance to review their math and reading skills so they are ready to start school after Labor Day, said Betty Damhof, a school social worker who coordinates the summer school and targeted services programs.
The June session had an enrollment of 440 students in grades K-8, Damhof said, while the August one has a little more than 100 enrolled in grades K-6.
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The decision to split the summer schedule didn't come until late in the last school year, and some families had already made summer plans, Damhof said, so she had expected that the August enrollment would be lower.
Once people saw the buses coming around to take the kids to school, though, more families signed up, she said.
The students are working mainly on reading and math skills, but that's not all they do. The school feeds everyone breakfast before school, and everyone gets some playtime outdoors.
Kids in kindergarten and first grade are also taking advantage of some recent teacher training in the SMART program, which uses a variety of fine motor and gross motor exercises to help the children get ready to learn.
One day this week, some students worked at a table along one wall of the gym, cutting paper with scissors and using other skills, while others jumped through a hopscotch game or crawled along a mat doing the best dog imitations they could muster.
"It gives them something to look forward to," Damhof said, and teachers report that previous behavior problems are greatly diminished.
In a second grade room Tuesday morning, nearly 20 students worked quietly at three different tables. One group colored pictures while another worked on writing skills.
A third group was reading "A Dog Named Scruff" with teacher Amber Erickson. The book was part of a series of fiction and non-fiction books about pets they had been reading, she said.
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The children reading with Erickson said they liked the book and were enjoying summer school. "On Fridays, we have a store," one girl said.
Erickson explained that the children earn tickets for their work and behavior during the week, and on Friday they can use them to "buy" school supplies or treats. During the week they read and work on math and also write in their journals, she said.
Superintendent Kathy Leedom gave the School Board an update on the program at its Monday meeting. Enrollment surpassed expectations, and the children seem to be enthusiastic about the session, she said.
"We feel it will be a jump start to the academic year," Leedom said. "We are very pleased about it."
The summer school program is federally funded and students can qualify for the school for a variety of reasons, Damhof said. A few of the reasons include working below grade level, truancy problems, learning English or coming from low-income families.
The split schedule grew from discussions last winter, Damhof said. She surveyed parents about the change, and about 200 said they would be interested in trying it. The session didn't fit everyone's schedules, however, so enrollment was lower than that.
Damhof said it's too soon to tell whether the split schedule will be used again in the future. "We'll see how the parents feel," she said, and wait to hear reports from teachers during the school year.
"There's positive things about June ... There's positive things about August," she said.
