Summer school to start Monday
By Donnie A. Lucas
Although the regular school year ended last week, some Albany ISD students will be returning for three weeks of summer school starting Monday, June 6.
Summer school classes will be held from 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon on Monday through Friday, ending on Friday, June 24. 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 three categories including not meeting attendance requirements, failing a course, or not scoring well on STAAR or EOC tests could be required to attend.
At the high school and junior high level, students will be able to make up time missed during the regular school year or complete an online credit recovery course to regain credit for one or more classes. 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 of more STAAR or STAAR End of Course exams are now required to complete 30 hours of accelerated learning by House Bill 4545, which was passed by the legislature last summer.
There is no cost to students for the STAAR or EOC remediation. High school students who are required to pass five EOC exams in order to graduate will be able to retest during the last week of summer show.
“Students are required to attend due to the new law to have 30 hours of instruction for each area failed, but we will only be able to complete 60 hours 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 complete the rest of the time in Saturday school or Lion Academy during the regular school year.”
Students at Nancy Smith Elementary are also required to attend summer classes if they didn’t meet attendance requirements, 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,” principal John Gallagher said. “We will be offering instruction in reading, math, and science this summer to help students close the learning gaps they may have.”
Grade school and junior high students are not required to retest after completing the additional instruction.
