Summer programs kept teachers, students busy during school break

More than 1,000 students took advantage of summer programs offered by the St. Tammany Parish School System to catch up, hone skills or learn something new.

The St. Tammany Parish School Board committee as a whole met Thursday night and heard reports of several programs for students and teachers held this summer.

Julie Matte, supervisor of instructional technology, reported several programs were in full swing for Pre-K, Camp READ, Extended School Year Program, LEAP summer remediation, Camp Learn-A-Lot, GEE summer remediation, straight summer school and band camps.

The regular summer school program offers an opportunity for students to either remove deficiencies or expand their academic experience by taking a course they cannot fit into their regular year schedule. This summer, 1,071 high school students participated in the program, with 617 of these on-line.

Matte said the GEE summer remediation program provides intense instruction in subjects in which the student needs to be retested.

Matte said 749 students attended LEAP remediation classes. They received 100 hours of instruction in math or English language arts to overcome poor scores on the LEAP test.

Programs for younger students included Camp READ for third-graders, designed to help them boost their literacy skills. Students are helped with phonics, reading, comprehension and other skills. Camp Learn-A-Lot included all types of learning activities for five weeks. Matte said one teacher said she enjoyed working at the camp because she felt she was teaching children, not just subjects.

Teachers also participated in summer programs, including a new initiative offered by NASA designed to make the leap from the classroom into the workplace in areas of science, math and physics

Five teachers from St. Tammany Parish — Ruth Hill, Paul Chandler, Deborah Nunez, Joanne Hobson and Crystal Drake — were selected for the inaugural collaborative program that will include Michoud Assembly Facility, NASA and LSU. The project began with a two-week internships for the teachers this summer in which they experienced the inside view of building the last external rocket for the space shuttle. The teachers even had their own mission patch.

While at Michoud, the last external fuel tank for the final space shuttle flight came onto the floor.

The shuttle program will end, but new programs designed to return to the moon and take man to Mars are already on the drawing board, and some of the components will be built at Michoud.

Teachers will introduce material and experience gained into their classrooms during the school year. Certain courses will be targeted, including earth science in eighth grade, physical science in ninth grade and physics classes. Acting as team leader and liaison is Dr. Paulette Perrin of LSU.

Also at the meeting, the strategic plan was reviewed. This is the final year of the five-year plan, and selection of a group to work on goals and strategies for achieving them over the next five years is under way.

Many of the school system goals were accomplished, but some were not. Subjects of the goals include LEAP score mastery levels, teacher qualifications and retention of students at a grade level.

Included in the report were goals for each category and the score in each category for each year. For example, the goal was to retain 85 percent of personnel. In 2008, 96.9 percent of personnel returned, in 2007 it was 98 percent, and in 2006, 94.4 percent of personnel returned.

Superintendent Gayle Sloan said, “It is time to think about the next five years. The district is different than it was five years ago, and we need a new plan for the next five years.”

While some indicators included in the strategic plan will be included for the next five years, some won’t be, and the shape of the new plan will be determined during the next few months, said Sloan.