Summer school takes on new meaning: drones, swimming, robotics

Students in Roosevelt are flying drones and learning to swim. In Valley Stream, they’re building robots and visiting museums. Some high schoolers are attending a Stony Brook University program that exposes them to science and medical fields.

Summer school on Long Island — often viewed by students as an unpleasant requirement, if not punishment, for failing a course — continues to evolve to include voluntary camp-like activities such as sports and music, as well as programs to explore various career fields.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which brought extra federal dollars to school districts, has created a lasting imprint on summer programs. Many schools tried out new enrichment initiatives — and kept them.

“Most schools don't even call it summer school anymore, but rather summer enrichment programs,” said Robert Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association. “Many programs are geared more toward enhancing instruction and getting students excited about learning.”

That's not to say those summer classes where students have to retake a course they failed have gone away. They're called “credit recovery programs,” and they still can be long periods of study, sometimes in classrooms with no air conditioning, with all the glories of summer just outside the window.

“Most students don't want to take a course that they already took,” Vecchio said.

In the Valley Stream Central High School District, where summer programs started Wednesday and run through Aug. 20, each class lasts about 80 minutes and students are usually done by noon, if not sooner, said Jennifer DiMaio, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

The district also offers eight-day prep courses for students who want to retake a Regents exam, she said.

“We try to use air-conditioned rooms when we can,” DiMaio said. “It's still long days. It's still hot.”

Adora Andre, 15, who is taking a voluntary English as a Second Language class this summer, said the heat doesn't bother her. On Thursday morning, she sat in a classroom at the district's Memorial Junior High School, where two big fans did little to cool the 80-degree heat and humidity outside. 

“It's normal for me,” said Andre, who arrived two months ago from Haiti, where she spoke French and Creole. Her classes there didn't have air conditioning.

Andre said it's worth it; she realizes that so much of her future depends on learning English.

“I want to speak English more easily,” she said. “I want to be a doctor.”

Some programs now being curtailed

The pandemic had a big impact on summer school programs, initially shutting many down, but students returned to find more summer offerings, especially those intended to address students' emotional well-being and learning loss. Many of these new programs were funded through extra federal COVID-19 aid.

As these funds dry up, at least two Island school districts have eliminated or curtailed some summer programs this year.

Levittown, which received a total of about $5 million in COVID aid, had used the money to offer a full credit-recovery summer school for grades 9-12 in 2021 and 2022 to “help address learning loss due to COVID,” Superintendent Todd Winch said. The programs cost $200,000 a summer. The district also had subsidized parent-paid summer enrichment programs, which usually cost $200 to $400, by 50% for 2022, he said.

“As those funds have been exhausted, we continue the parent-paid programs [like Camp Invention and Summer Music], but they have returned to their full cost,” Winch said. 

Levittown also has discontinued its credit-recovery 9-12 summer school, he said. Now, if a student fails a course, they have the option to take it in the fall or at another district that offers a summer program, but they would have to pay the out-of-district tuition, Winch said.

In West Islip, the district isn't offering free "credit recovery" summer school anymore, officials said in a statement. But the district is providing an option for students to take credit recovery courses through Eastern Suffolk BOCES, which families have to pay for, officials said in a statement.

West Islip is offering some summer "enrichment" programs. The district has its Summer Investigations program at Paul J. Bellew Elementary School and an extended school year program for special education students.

Some Island districts have integrated the extra summer programs into their annual budgets.

Valley Stream's high school district started a summer program in 2021 to help incoming seventh graders acquaint themselves with their new junior high. At the time, some students who had chosen to stay with remote learning had not been in a classroom for a long time, DiMaio said.

“Parents in elementary school were very worried that their kids had not been in school for a year and a half,” said DiMaio of the free two-week “summer bridge” program that continues this summer. “They're introduced to the bell schedule, opening lockers, changing classes, time management — and they get to meet new friends.” 

In Roosevelt, school officials started a summer “intervention” program in 2022 for students in first through sixth grades who were considered academically “fragile” in the subjects of math and English, said Nateasha McVea, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

“We were aware of these concerns [before COVID], but they were magnified by COVID,” McVea said of the program that begins Monday. “It created a greater need.”

McVea noted that numerous students in Roosevelt don't often engage in swimming activities but are still around bodies of water, so the district is offering swim lessons through a local swim school.

“It's primarily for safety,” she said of the program that serves 80 kids in kindergarten through second grade.

Parents want more programs

Long Island educators say parents continue to ask for more summer enrichment programs. Several districts partner with local towns and nonprofits, educators say.

A Central Islip nonprofit called Community Learning Academy rents space from the district to provide local students with activities such as learning chess, and making trips to shows, local museums and science centers, executive director Brandy Scott said. 

“Elementary school kids need the support and socialization,” Scott said. “Parents know their child is safe and having fun.”

Collaboration can help districts save money and offer more robust summer programs, educators say.

Five districts work with Eastern Suffolk BOCES on summer enrichment programs for grades 1-9, including hands-on activities in science, technology and the arts: Bay Shore, Bayport-Blue Point, Central Islip, Comsewogue and Connetquot, officials said.

Because of its breadth and size, BOCES can afford to purchase an abundance of programs, curricula and materials that individual districts might not find affordable, said Danielle Hudek, program administrator for enrichment services for Eastern Suffolk BOCES.

“We have vast resources and opportunities, so a district can offer much more robust programing,” she said. 

“I think the majority of families want to avoid their child experiencing 'summer slide,'” Hudek added, referring to the theory that students can lose some of their learning skills over two months of vacation. “Some families use it as child care.”

The enrichment programs are voluntary and not for credit, and they allow students to enhance their knowledge and explore potential careers without the pressure of tests and grades, she said.

One summer class, called Chef Shop, has students cooking recipes as they learn about science and math. For instance, students making tacos learn about the science that causes heated cheese to melt and take a different form, she said.

Local colleges also are offering programs that allow high schoolers to test the waters of various science and medical fields.

Stony Brook University offers high schoolers a chance to dip their toes into science and medical careers as part of its hands-on program called the Science and Research Awareness Series.

Dr. Srinivas Pentyala, an anesthesiology and research professor at the school, said he started the program 20 years ago because he saw so many students finish their undergraduate coursework but didn't know what career to pursue. 

“We provide hands-on workshops on how to draw blood, how to intubate, how to work with bacterial cultures under a microscope,” Pentyala said. He noted that the program, which costs students $1,000, has grown from about 20 participants to 130 this summer.

On Thursday, the group visited the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook, where they heard doctors talk about geriatric care as they interacted with the vets.

Nicole Lei was a rising high school senior in Setauket when she took the program in 2011, and she said it changed her future.

“At the time, I thought I wanted to be an anesthesiologist, but I didn't know what it was. I just heard it was a good job,” she said.

She knew little about dentistry, the profession she eventually pursued, because she never had cavities. “I'd go to the dentist. They just looked at my teeth and let me go,” she said.

The program showed her that anesthesiology “was a lot of stress, and I don't like that.” She also learned that dentistry included a lot more interesting aspects than just looking at teeth, she said.

"[The program] just exposed me to a lot. ... It helped me narrow my choices,” said Lei, 29.

Lei went on to earn her doctorate of dental surgery at Stony Brook and practices in Port Jefferson Station.

By Craig Schneider

craig.schneider@newsday.com@Scraigo

Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.