Marion County summer school kicks off with hands-on programs
Jun. 23—RACHEL — Gone are the days of students dreading summer school.
Marion County Schools' Summer SOLE programing kicked off this week across the district, where students in grades K-8 signed up to slow the summer slide and catch up on learning losses brought about by two years of COVID.
Hand-in-hand with SOLE is the Marion County Technical Center's summer camp for middle schoolers. Wednesday morning, students from around the North Marion attendance area were bussed to North Marion High to take part in the programs.
"We had a really smooth start to is, the teachers seem energized and they've spent a lot of time prepping to make sure we're not only focusing on academic but also hands-on learning," NMHS Principal Kristin DeVaul said. "We really want to be driving home transferrable skills and applicable skills that are relevant to the real world."
Middle schoolers who came to NMHS for Summer SOLE do a variety of activities to keep busy, rather than just rote memorization or worksheets. While learning is at the center of the program, daily walks and miniature field trips keep the students engaged.
Wednesday, just after lunch, students went to Fairmont State University's campus to see the theater in Wallman Hall.
Next door to NMHS is the Marion County Technical Center, which is holding its first summer camp to attract middle schoolers to their programs. Students were able to choose from several programs MCTC offers and will rotate between them as the summer progresses.
Jay Michael, principal of the tech center, said he's pleased with the turnout given it's the camp's first year and he hopes the program will pull more students into his programs.
While the SOLE activities are marketed as hands-on, the MCTC gets the students up to their elbows in trade skills. Welding, construction, electric, carpentry, culinary and auto repair are just a few of the programs the students are able to sample this summer.
"We're just trying to get the kids up here. In the past we get the middle schools up here and the kids get five minutes to try one of our programs, and that's really not enough to foster interest," Michael said. "This is a great opportunity to get these kids to come up and spend a few days with us to get a better idea of what we're about."
The MCTC camp will only last four days and after Wednesday, the students will swap to new courses they chose and wrap up the camp on Friday.
Back in NMHS and across the hall from the middle schoolers, North Marion's own students were hard at work in the library for the usual summer credit recovery. DeVaul said recovery has been on everyone's mind, and she believes they're making progress.
Initially, at the onset of COVID-19 shutdowns, DeVaul thought the change in normalcy would "jolt progress forward." But once the students returned to in-person classes, it was clear there was work to do.
"Our teachers, when they were out of the building due to COVID, really exhausted themselves making sure the students were receiving as many skills as possible," DeVaul said. "When I see something like the Summer SOLE program, it's a reminder of how much support we're receiving from the central office."
DeVaul and Michael are grateful for the support from the district's central office and how School Superintendent Donna Hage supports their summer programs and the success of students.
Last year was the first installment of Summer SOLE in Marion County and was met with praise from the community for the strides made in keeping kids on track.
This year had a small dip in attendance, but that was chalked up to the pandemic lightening and more activities being available this summer.
Hage said that overall, she's happy with how the summer has kicked off in Marion County.
"It's wonderful to be able to serve a little over 800 students and we have some exciting programming that's hands on," Hage said. "We have the theatre element and the MCTC element we've added this year to engage students in that type of study."
Although Summer SOLE has already started, parents who are still interested are welcome to call the office of L.D. Skarzinski at the central office at 304-367-2100 extension 117 for more information.
Reach David Kirk at 304-367-2522 or by email at dkirk@timeswv.com.
