Waukegan’s summer school program will give students ‘a chance to ease back into the classroom setting’

There will be nothing remote about summer school for Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 students this year, but the all face-to-face learning program will be anything but traditional.

For students who continued with remote learning during the hybrid program in place since April, it will be their first time in a classroom since March of last year. For those opting for a return to the building then, summer school will at least double the amount of time in person.

Summer school starts June 7 for high school students at all campuses, and June 14 for elementary and middle school students at nine locations, giving students an opportunity to ease back into what officials hope will be a term more like two years ago than the current experience.

Elementary and middle school students will attend class four days a week, from 8 a.m. to noon, June 14 through July 9. There are two sessions for high school students, as well as a choice of mornings or afternoons.

Eduardo Cesario, the deputy superintendent over academics, said there are morning and afternoon options to allow teens flexibility for a work schedule. They can go from 8 a.m. to noon, or from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. The first session runs from June 7 to June 25, and a second from June 28 to July 16.

“It will be a chance to ease back into the classroom setting,” Cesario said. “This will be very different from what we did last year.”

Along with classroom time, there will be field trips and guest speakers. Cesario said those opportunities get students out of the classroom and, in some cases, out of the building with new opportunities to learn in different ways.

Field trips could be to a place like the Chicago Botanic Garden. Cesario said those visits to the same place are geared for the appropriate grade level. High school students might take a step beyond what they learned in a biology class. Younger children could get hands-on experience.

Guest speakers will talk about a variety of topics, but Cesario said they will come from the community. Preferably, they will be graduates of Waukegan’s public schools who are making productive contributions as adults.

“It will be an opportunity to see people who look like them who had similar experiences,” he said. “They’ll see people who got their start where (the students) are sitting now.”

While both Cesario and Jason Nault, an associate superintendent, recognize summer school has a variety of elements, this year they both said the social and emotional aspects of educating children will get particular attention. Field trips and guest speakers are part of that package.

“Moving the students out of the classroom gets them a chance to be together in a social way while they are still learning,” Cesario said. “Those activities help their social emotional situation.”

Nault said experiences outside the classroom like field trips get students interacting with each other as well as their teachers, which is another ingredient of the social emotional component.

“It gives the students good balance,” Nault said. “It gives them more time to socialize.”

With students learning remotely for more than a year and some of them continuing to do so, Cesario said there was a dip in the usual amount of education as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Nationally, it is known as the COVID slide.

Though most high school students are in class to gain credits toward graduation they did not achieve during the school year, Cesario said for those in middle and elementary school there will be efforts to help children learn what may have been missed during the regular school year.

“We’re going to focus on the areas where students need growth in their student experience,” Cesario said. “We will be building basic skills.”

Cesario said an effort is being made to hire more teachers to reduce the student-teacher ratio. Smaller classes will create a situation where those who need more attention can get it.

“We’ll be able to focus on what each individual student needs,” he said.

One thing which has not changed is the safety protocols required for anyone to enter any of the buildings, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Temperatures will be taken, and students must certify they have no symptoms of the disease.

Nault said just as the district is now following guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Illinois Department of Public Health, that will continue in summer school. It is also in conjunction with the memorandum of understanding with the district’s labor unions.

Summer school will accommodate between 30% to 40% of the district’s approximately 16,000 students. Nault said the spring semester ends May 28, giving youngsters a break before starting their summer studies.