RCS summer program revamped for post-COVID learning

HAMLET — Richmond County Schools has always hosted a summer camp program, but it will be far more comprehensive this year.

House Bill 82 was signed by Governor Roy Cooper on April 1, which mandates that all school districts must provide a summer program for at-risk K-12 students. The at-risk determination is based on a student’s grades and attendance.

The Richmond County Board of Education unanimously approved a plan for the summer camp. Previous summer programs have primarily focused on reading, but now it will include extracurricular enrichment activities such as music, arts, and STEM courses, as well as field trips.

“I’m so excited about what we’re going to do,” said Jeff Epps, founder of STEMerald City and a RCS employee from 2004 to 2016.

Epps will be involved with training district personnel in the instructional technology department. They will then be working with teachers to integrate more STEM lessons into the classroom. Middle school students will be the main focus for these STEM activities.

In Richmond County, K-8 students will be offered 150 hours of in-person instruction from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday in two separate sessions.

Each day there will be breakfast and lunch provided, as well as required physical activity. The enrichment are only required to be put in once per session by law. RCS will be implementing it daily.

An assessment is required at the beginning and end of each session to measure growth.

Field trips include visits to Aloha Safari Zoo in Cameron, NC and Hitchcock Creek Trails. Community partnerships include The ROC in Hamlet, 4-H Youth Development with Catherine Shelley and Epps’s STEMerald City.

For high schools, there will be a lot more flexibility, as well as a larger focus on credit recovery. Students will have the opportunity to make-up credits that they may have failed before.

There will be either 150 hours or 30 days of in-person instruction. The high schools are currently working on plans that work best for them, according to Dr. Kate Smith, executive director of curriculum and instruction.

“For the summer, we’re going to employ a certified teacher to be in the room with them to make sure that they’re getting the most benefit from this credit recovery process,” Smith said.

Students who don’t need to make a credit can still take a course for remediation and academic support. For middle schoolers at risk of not moving onto the next grade level, these classes can show evidence of grade-level mastery to teachers and principals that will allow them to proceed.

“We’ve asked the teachers to submit us a list of the learning objectives that students struggle with,” Epps said. “We have data that shows: ‘students did not do well on these objectives.’ We’re going to take those objectives and build them into activities.”

Epps said if a student struggles with a topic like acceleration, they can create an activity where students can code a microchip and create an accelerometer that records measurements and time to demonstrate the concept and to provide a foundation of understanding.

“We’re trying to make it tangible and visual for these students so that it will stick,” Epps said.

Epps said the middle school students will have the opportunity build their own SmartWatch that they can use to measure temperature and light, as well as track their steps. Students will also be building their own weather stations, which will be used to solve various problems.

Elective courses will be available in the summer program. Camp flyers and brochures will be sent home with students in the next week.

Board member Pat Campbell said that this program offers real advantages to the community and that there’s a lot of instruction being offered.

Smith confirmed that bus transportation will be provided and that the summer classes will be hosted at the student’s school. The plan is to have a 12:1 student-teacher ratio.

The two sessions for K-8 students will be June 14 to July 1 and July 12 to July 29. The high school sessions have not yet been determined.