Livingston schools will offer summer classes again

The Livingston Union School District is planning a four-week effort to train teachers in techniques and provide students some extra help during the first summer program in the district in three years.

The STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) and Literacy Academy will run June 11 to July 9 at Yamato Colony Elementary School in Livingston and Livingston Middle School. It is expected to enroll nearly 900 transitional kindergarten through eighth-grade students, according to a news release.

Superintendent Andres Zamora said some of the educational practices used this summer for the first time will extend into the regular school year. The program will cost $200,000 to $250,000, according to Zamora.

“I’m very excited about this,” he said in the release. “This is brand new. It will be a very unique opportunity. The risk is we’ve never done this before, but the reward will be a new type of learning never offered before.”

The summer program is aimed at students who are “below grade level” and will include foster youth, migrant children and English-language learners. Some slots will be available for students “just below-grade level,” a designation higher than “below-grade level,” Zamora said.

Kuljinder Sekhon, the district’s director of educational services, said he hopes teachers will find the summer program rewarding.

“The lessons are teacher-designed and there is a lot of hands-on enriched learning,” he said in the news release. “If you walk into the classroom, you can expect to find students doing hands-on projects, working in groups and doing performance and visual arts.”

Sekhon said the focus will be on communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity – hallmarks of the new Common Core instructional standards mandated by the state.

Nancy Brasil, a Yamato Colony first-grade teacher, said she believes the program could help students by increasing retention, comprehension and academic achievement. “Teachers this summer will welcome students’ attempts to bring all reasonable solutions to the table when they are attacking problems,” she said.

Zamora said during development of the Local Control Accountability Plan, which are meetings meant to give local residents a chance to weigh in on how their schools are governed, participants asked for summer learning opportunities.

Teachers will create their own assessment programs to determine if students have mastered the subjects. Students will get report cards at the end of the program.

The classes, from 8 a.m. to noon, will be taught by 37 instructors. Breakfast and lunch are provided to pupils.

For more on the program, call the Livingston Union School District at (209) 394-5400.

This story was originally published May 3, 2015 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Livingston schools will offer summer classes again."