NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Hundreds of schoolchildren in North Adams are being kept busy through the public school system's summer camps and activities this month. 

 

About 200 children are attending the district's 21st Century Program through July, and new activities include internships for high school students. The programs are funded largely through grant funding, including 21st Century and special education grants. 

 

The offerings were presented to the School Committee before the end of the school year. 

 

Assistant Superintendent Timothy Callahan said more than 130 students had signed up with site director Noella Carlow for the popular 21st Century Program within a day of forms going out. The program runs about 133 hours during July.

 

"We anticipate that we will fill all 200 slots, and we can even go over that number a little bit and still have capacity to run the program," he said. "If we say 200 students times 133. That's 26,600 additional hours so 50,225 hours of additional learning for students who engage in the school year after-school program in the summer program. 

 

"That's an enormous amount of learning for our students. And we're really proud of that."

 

The summer and after-school programs are funded by a federal Department of Education grant of $140,605. The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program has for 25 years provided enrichment programming for high need and high poverty communities. 

 

The North Adams program has a half-day kinder camp and the Summer Science Camp; Carlow is in charge of both programs. 

 

"The kinder camp is for kindergarten students who engage in socialization activities and the Summer Science Camp is mostly project-based learning with the science theme and high levels of student engagement," Callahan said. "We had 225 students regularly attend an average of 3.5 hours of programming in 21st Century at Brayton Elementary School, which covers the entire district for after-school programs, which ends up being 105 hours per student. 

 

"That's the equivalent of almost three or 2 1/2, college classes as far as number of hours."

 

Callahan said the district applied for additional grants under the 21st Century umbrella, including a grant that provides enhanced services for special education students.

 

Special education students can again attend Sunshine Camp at Windsor Lake and there is school-based specialized programming for students.

 

One of the grants pays for five students in Grades 10-12 to work as teaching assistant interns in the summer program and pays an internship coordinator to work with these students.

 

"Ideally these students are in the education pathway as part of our early college program, and it gives a chance for older students to kind of give back to the community, work with younger students to help build their skills in the education pathway, but also provide some assistance to our teachers and staff in the program at the elementary school for the summer," Callahan said. 

 

An "exciting new opportunity" is working the former Gov. Jane Swift's Cobble Hill Farm Education and Rescue Center. Fifth- and sixth-graders will spend about two weeks, or about half their 21st Century program, at the Williamstown farm. 

 

"They will receive education from staff that Jane and her folks are providing, it will also provide some staff as support for the students who are engaging in hands-on science-based activity," he said. "And so we're really excited about the launch of that partnership this summer."

 

Callahan said the program couldn't happen without grant funding and partnerships. Some of the programs provide staffing at no charge and MassHire was funding interns to assist. Williams College offers advanced programs for Kids 4 Harmony, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts has an early college readiness program for elementary students, Jennifer Munoz of the Growing Healthy Garden Program engages the students in community gardening.

 

The schools are also partnering with other city departments and organizations on a Youth Leadership Program spearheaded by Police Det. Matthew Meranti. The activity, which sounds much like the former DARE program, will take place at Windsor Lake for a week in July for Grades 7 and 8 and in August for Grades 5 and 6. 

 

The high school summer programs will shift toward early college preparedness. Principal Stephanie Kopala said there will be a focus on remedial math and English language arts and time management in Grades 7 and 8

 

The current model of Edgenuity credit recovery is being replaced. That course had students taking a class four hours a day for about three weeks.

 

"We found that although that was helpful in getting credit recovery it wasn't necessarily helpful in building the skills needed," Kopala said. "Although it was run by a certified teacher, they weren't teaching the actual material."

 

Students who take the course will get an elective credit for participating in it and those who need more direct recovery will have opportunity to take an alternative but related course during the school year. 

 

The final course is for students interested in early college and is run in partnership with MCLA.