Valley Stream - Summer school

No summer break in high schools

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Classes may have ended for the schools in the Valley Stream Central High School District, but the learning continues for approximately 900 students enrolled in the Summer School program at Central High School.

The program is separated into different sections, including an adjustment course for incoming seventh graders, driver’s education classes, and traditional summer school. There are 19 potential August graduates participating and the program is aimed to help students recover credits after transferring schools, poor academic performance, or those who did not have enough credits to graduate in June.

In addition to taking classes during the day, students are able to enroll in online classes to accelerate their credit recovery, according to Jennifer Gallagher, the district’s director of instruction, funded programs and grants.

Borjan Castillo, 19, who is three-and-a-half credits shy of the required number to graduate, said the summer school program gives him an opportunity to receive his diploma, but more importantly, gives him a chance to move on from high school.

“My goal is to graduate this August,” he said. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to graduate this August. I want to push myself. I want to make it come true so I can move on with my life.”

Castillo is currently taking classes at Central during the day as well as taking online classes offered by the district. He said he likes the online classes better, because he’s able to learn more from them.

“If I don’t know something, I can search it up and read about it and then go back,” he said. “Even if [the online class] is telling me something, I can still get more information about that.”

Gallagher and Amy La Personerie, the assistant principal of summer school, said that Castillo is quickly going through the online classes and that he could graduate in August if he continues to work hard this summer.

The traditional summer school is broken up into two sections: one for the junior high school students and one for senior high. The junior high program focuses on math and English for four weeks, while the high school program is in two parts.

The first part is a six-week program for students who need to re-take classes they may have failed during the year. The other is a two-week review class that begins on July 30. The review class is for those students who had success in classes during the year, but were unsuccessful in taking Regents examinations, according to La Personerie.

The district also offers a Jump-Start program for incoming seventh graders who were identified by their elementary school teachers as needing “additional support to be successful in seventh grade,” La Personerie said.

The students are there from 8 a.m. to 9:44 a.m. for 20 days during the summer. The 48 students enrolled have their days separated into two parts: English and math. In the English portion, the students learn about reading, writing and vocabulary skills, and have a chance to work on their summer reading projects. The day then switches to focus on math, where on Monday the students learned about common denominators.

There are approximately 100 students enrolled in a driver’s education course in which the district contracted East Meadow Driving School. Also, not counted in the 900 students at Central are 400 students taking part in a music program under the direction of Todd Holly, district coordinator of fine and performing arts. The program is located at the elementary schools in Valley Stream.

Gallagher said that she sees many smiling faces during summer school, which is not what she thought when she first started working in Valley Stream.

“When I first came here, I thought at summer school you would see a lot of grumpy kids with bad attitudes,” she said. “That’s not the case. They appreciate the opportunity.”