Summer Program Focuses On Special Needs Students

Casey Kelly/KMXT
Kodiak High School is once again offering a summer school program this year for students with special needs. As KMXT’s Casey Kelly reports, this summer’s session is just about over, and school officials say there might be changes in store for next year’s program.

Kodiak High School used to have a full-fledged summer school program that served students of all abilities. But Principal Bill Watkins says funding cuts forced the school to scale the program back to just serve students with special needs.

(Watkins 1 :18s “…those funds are no longer.”)

The purpose of the program is so that the students don’t regress between regular school years. Watkins says the summer starts with a series of goals for each individual student and will end with a report on each student’s progress.

(Watkins 2 :16s “…to the goals and objectives.”)

This year the school invited about 53 students who qualified to participate in summer school. Of those about 45 have attended at least a day of the program. The current daily attendance is about 26 students and Watkins says four staff positions have been cut since the beginning of the summer.

He says attendance goes down on days when there’s nicer weather, and the program tends to lose students after one of the breaks in the summer school schedule, which is two weeks on, one week off. To attract more students to more of the sessions, Watkins says the schedule might be changed next year.

(Watkins 3 :10s “…a week break, et cetera.”)

He also praised local bussing company, First Student, for working with the school to make sure students’ transportation needs are met.

(Watkins 4 :14s “…really wonderful to work with.”)

Next week is the last week of the program, giving students about a two-week break until regular fall classes start back up again. There is a student in Port Lions who’s also in a summer school program. Watkins says her program will go an extra two weeks.

I’m Casey Kelly.

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