Haverhill’s summer school programs got high marks from more than 2,500 students and staff who took part in them this year.
Haverhill Public Schools Title I and Community Outreach Director Dianne Connolly told the School Committee last week, while many nearby communities were unable to offer summer programs this year, Haverhill’s programs continue grow each year.
“While several of our surrounding communities were not able to offer summer programing due to the lack of staffing and other issues, Haverhill Public Schools offered a variety of robust summer learning opportunities for all students,” she said.
Connolly said 550 staff members, ranging from teachers to food service and custodians, worked with nearly 2,000 students in a number of remedial, enrichment and credit advancement programs at locations throughout the city. She explained funding for the programs and staff did not come out of Haverhill’s school budget.
Haverhill Public Schools Title I and Community Outreach Director Dianne Connolly. (Courtesy photograph.)
“Every one of these programs is grant funded under our federal grant. It does not come out of the LEA budget,” she said.
Committee members praised the success of this year’s program, including Richard J. Rosa who compared this year’s results to five years ago.
“When I started on the School Committee, my first summer was 2018, and there was about 200 kids that participated so we’re times 10 for this summer,” he said.
School Superintendent Margaret Marotta told the Committee that pre- and post-testing was given to those students and the data is being tabulated now and will be presented as soon as it is available.