LOCS Superintendent Marion Ginopolis will regularly share thoughts and updates about district-related topics in The Lake Orion Review.

At the end of the traditional school year, many students celebrate their success as they begin vacation. Some of our students want or need a more extensive school experience in the summer months and Lake Orion Community Schools offers a number of opportunities for our students.

The district provides four programs for students – the Skills Sharpener and the Skills Booster for Kindergarten through Sixth Grade and the Credit Recovery and Credit Forward programs for high school students.

One favorite is the Skills Sharpener program designed to keep skills sharp over the summer to help limit learning loss. Students are engaged in a variety of fun activities as an extension of the curriculum from their recently completed grade. Children entering first through sixth grade build comprehension of written material, strengthen word attack skills, and are immersed in writing activities to become more creative, convincing, and compelling writers. In addition, they work on strengthening their mathematic skills as problem-solving strategies are emphasized.

Our little ones can participate in Kinder Readiness, which is for children who have completed one year of developmental kindergarten or preschool to prepare them for Kindergarten. Children participate in hands-on, fun activities, strengthen their letters and sounds, along with number recognition and counting with one to one correspondence. One of the main components of this program is for children to strengthen themselves socially and emotionally. They learn how to speak kindly to one another, take turns, wait patiently for others, share stories, listen to others, and play nicely with others.

Funded by a grant, the Skills Booster program is a 4-week intervention program developed for LOCS students in Kindergarten through 5th grade. With limited class sizes, students are invited to attend the program based on academic performance and teacher recommendation. Like the Skills Sharpener program, the curriculum is designed to limit summer learning loss and focuses on the areas or reading, writing, and phonics. Lessons have been designed by district Curriculum Coaches and are tailored to each child’s individual learning needs. All students work daily to develop their oral reading fluency and reading comprehension skills with the use of our Read Live computer-based reading lab. The progress of each child is closely monitored by Skills Booster teachers, and parents are provided with a Progress Report at the end of the 4-week program.

For high school students who may be behind in credits or not on track to graduate on time or would like to improve their grade the Credit Recovery course meets their needs. This is a self-directed web-based program, with each student having a LOCS teacher mentor. The flexibility of being web-based means they can complete the program anywhere there is web access. They only need to come to the school for the tests and final exam. And, for those students who would like to earn additional credit during the summer, Credit Forward offers courses through the same web-based, self-directed program as Credit Recovery where students can move at the pace appropriate for their learning which is monitored by an LOCS teacher mentor.

Lake Orion Community Schools embraces and supports every student’s learning and wants to make as many opportunities available year-round. The summer school programs allow students to continue to expand their education, even outside of the traditional school year.

– Superintendent Marion Ginopolis