ARLINGTON, Va. — There has been a big increase in parents wanting to sign their kids up for summer classes. In many local school districts, there are not enough educators to meet the demand.
Arlington Public Schools typically offer summer school courses to about 2,000 to 2,500 elementary students in a normal year. This year, nearly double the number of students met the eligibility requirements to enroll in summer classes.
On Monday night, Arlington Public Schools held a virtual town hall to answer questions from parents who were hoping to enroll their children in the summer curriculum.
"We set a goal to serve a greater number of students and we needed to be recruiting while we were also communicating with families. That’s why our communications with summer schools stated enrollment would be contingent on staffing," said Assistant Superintendent Bridget Loft.
During the virtual town hall, school administrators shared that they must now limit their summer school curriculum to those who most need the support, including students with disabilities and English learners.
"We absolutely considered increasing class size but I want to emphasize that students who are eligible for summer school need additional support. They need the concentrated attention of their teacher so if we increase class size, then we are diluting that concentrated attention," said Assistant Superintendent Bridget Loft.
"The other piece I want to throw out there is that we are offering 20 days, four hours each day of instruction over the summer. When you do the math, that totals 10 full instructional days. In order to maximize the equivalent of 10 full instructional days, we need to have highly qualified teachers," said Assistant Superintendent Bridget Loft.
School administrators with Arlington Public Schools said summer school has always been optional. This year, they expanded eligibility because of the pandemic. In a notice sent out to parents last week, the school district shared that despite offering financial incentives, they only had enough educators to support nearly half of the 5,000 eligible elementary school students wanting to enroll.
There are currently 175 elementary school teachers staffing summer school classes. District leaders said an additional 200 teachers would be needed to meet the needs of all the elementary school students wanting to enroll.
"I want to apologize to teachers for the first sentence of the school talk that was sent out on Monday. It was poorly worded and did not accurately represent the fact that our teachers have worked tirelessly to support our students throughout the school year," said Assistant Superintendent Bridget Loft.
Monday night's town hall was focused on elementary school students. The school district is still trying to determine the need for secondary-level students and hopes to provide further advice in future weeks.
"We know that our students are going to have some gaps from this year and it is our hope to not only provide them some opportunities over the summer, but all but also to hit the ground running in the fall. Our supervisor and specialists of our content areas have been working extremely hard to look at the standards and to build in places for re-teaching in the fall, in the first and second quarter of next year," said Supervisor of Early Childhood Elementary Education Wendy Pilch.
In a revised message sent out to parents on May 12, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Bridget Loft said
"We understand that this decision is disappointing to families whose children will not be able to participate in summer school and regret that we are unable to serve all elementary students who met the initial eligibility standards as we cannot accommodate waitlists. APS is committed to ensuring that these students will have targeted instructional resources available to them throughout the summer via Lexia and Dreambox. Their teachers will assess their learning needs at the start of the 2021-22 school year to determine curricular areas that may require accelerated learning support."
"Absolutely this is a regional challenge. I can say that Arlington is serving proportionately more students than many of our regional districts surrounding us. I think each district sets their summer school goals based on the needs of their students," said Assistant Superintendent Bridget Loft.
There will be a second virtual town hall on Tuesday evening, focusing on summer school options for students with disabilities.
- All PreK students in their 4-year-old year (rising Kindergarten) who've received a summer school eligibility letter.
- Students with disabilities who have Extended School Year (ESY) or Recovery Services on their IEP.
- Students with disabilities who are enrolled in countywide special education programs (PreK Special Education Programs, MIPA, Life Skills, Interlude, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, and Communication)
- English Learners (EL) levels 1 and 2 and Temporary English Learners (TEL-students who have not been assessed yet but are presumed English Learners)