The upcoming School Year is on the minds of many, but it’s also raising many questions like whether Students will have to wear a mask or if some feel they’re behind due to not being in Classrooms as much.
Some dropped out last minute, but there were dozens of kids at Portage’s Elementary School Summer Program. Parents tell us with the Pandemic their Kids need to get caught up. With Online Learning, masks and social distancing, some Parents feel their kids have fallen behind. Sandy Lingafelt, a Parent from the Portage Area School District saying: “My youngest one could not take to the Online Learning, he’d rather just be all over the place. He can’t sit in front of a computer and watch a Teacher. He just didn’t have that capability.”
Sandy Lingafelt’s Son and about 45 other Kids in Portage’s Elementary School are catching up on their Education in Summer School. Brandi Kephart, a Parent from the Portage Area School District adding: “I felt like after the School Year that they just needed a little help with everything with all of the COVID conditions and I thought it would just help him move onto the first grade a little bit smoother.”
Without masks and more hands-on learning, Teachers say the difference in how Students have learned is huge. Cara Harbaugh, a Summer School Teacher at Portage Area School District saying: “I try to get them out of their seats doing scoots in the hallway getting them moving around. With their masks off and with them socially distanced, they are so much happier to be in the Classroom and I see their smiles and it just makes me even happier than to teach them and review these materials that they need.”
With this sense of normalcy, Parents say it hasn’t been hard to get their kids to want to learn. Kephart saying: “Keeping him on schedule and seeing him excited to come to School, I don’t have to try and get him up. He knows ‘oh my Friends are here’ we’re going to come learn a little bit do some fun stuff and now it will be an easy transition into Fall.”
But if the Pandemic never happened, some Parents say they wouldn’t have their kids in Summer School. Kephart adding: “I feel like he would have been more in School more hands on and I don’t think he would have needed the Summer program.”
School Officials tell us they’re still not sure what this upcoming School Year is going to look like – they’re still waiting for Guidance from the State.
