Summer school to start June 12
By Donnie A. Lucas
Although the regular school year ended last week for the summer, some Albany ISD students will be returning for three weeks of summer school starting Monday, June 12.
Summer school classes will be held from 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon on Monday through Friday, ending on Friday, June 23. Both campuses will follow the same schedule.
Parents of students who are required to attend should have been notified already, according to school officials. However, anyone who has questions can contact either the elementary or secondary offices for assistance.
There are three areas of criteria that students can fall under that require summer school attendance. Students who fell into one or more of these categories, including not meeting attendance requirements, failing a course or not scoring well on STAAR or EOC tests, could be required to attend.
“State law requires that students who missed 10 percent of the school year, whether the absences were excused or not, must make up time by attending summer school,” Nancy Smith Elementary principal John Gallagher said.
At the high school and junior high level, students will also be able to make up time missed during the regular school year or complete online credit recovery courses to regain credit for one or more classes that they failed. The cost of enrolling in the online recovery classes is $150 per class for each semester that credit is sought.
Likewise, students who did not pass one or more STAAR or STAAR End of Course exams are required to complete 30 of accelerated learning as required by House Bill 4545.
There is no cost to students for STAAR or EOC remediation. High school students who are required to pass five EOC exams in order to graduate can retest during the last week of summer school.
“Students are required to have 30 hours of instruction for each area failed, but we will only be able to complete 60 hours total during summer school,” secondary principal Glen Hill said. “If they don’t attend classes this summer or failed more than two subject areas, they will have to repeat those classes.”
Students at Nancy Smith Elementary are also required to attend summer classes if they didn’t meet attendance requirements, or failed a class or one or more STAAR tests. There is no cost to attend.
“HB 4545 requires students to attend accelerated instruction if they didn’t pass one of the STAAR tests,” Gallagher said.
Grade school and junior high students are not required to retest after completing the additional instruction.
