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MILL HALL -- Even after the school year ends, educational opportunities in the Keystone Central School District will continue.
At Thursday night's work session, district administrators gave board members a closer look at "Keystone Camp," a month-long summer learning session. The presentation was made by Lesley Skrtich, camp coordinator, and Megan Hull, KCSD's Director of Curriculum and Innovation.
Hull spoke at length about the makeup of the Keystone Camp.
According to Hull, the purpose of the camp is to provide students in kindergarten through 12th grade a safe and fun learning environment for a month during the summer in order to maintain educational consistency for students.
"We really want to focus this camp on educating the entire child," Hull explained. "Not only are we going to have the academic instruction, but we're going to have the social and emotional learning component built into the camp for K-12 students."
Hull said that in addition to academic needs, students have social and emotional needs.
Keystone Camp will run from 8:15 a.m. until noon. Kindergarten through eighth graders will attend either Robb Elementary or Renovo Elementary. The tentative schedule looks like this: 8:15 a.m.-8:45 a.m. -- Student arrival, breakfast and Mindful Morning (SEL instruction, goal-setting, etc.); 8:45 a.m.-11:30 a.m. -- Stations of STEM, ELA and math instruction; 11:30 a.m. -- Lunch and free play; Noon -- Dismissal.
"We want it to be learning, but we also want it to be fun … students will be having so much fun that they won't even realize they're learning," Skrtich said.
For students in grades nine through 12, they will either attend Central Mountain High School or Renovo Elementary, due to construction at Bucktail High School. The focus, Hull said, will be on students in need to credit recovery. Their tentative schedule looks like this: 8:15 a.m.-8:45 a.m. -- Student arrival, breakfast and Mindful Morning (SEL instruction, goal-setting, etc.); 8:45 a.m.-11:30 a.m., Credit recovery focus using Virtual Academy credit recovery options; 11:30 a.m. -- Lunch; Noon -- Dismissal.
"We hope to have teachers on site to help with any questions the students might have or any additional support they might need," Skrtich said.
Transportation, breakfast and lunch will be provided for students free of charge.
"I think that is going to serve our students and our families very well," Hull said.
The camp will take place Monday through Thursday, July 12 through Aug. 12.
There will be an application process, according to Hull.
"We are going to be operating under an application process rather than a first-come, first-serve process," Hull said.
Applications are due on Friday, May 21.
"We're looking at Tier 3 students and those learning support students. We are going to specifically reach out to those families of those students and make sure that they know about this opportunity within the next two weeks during that application window. We want to make sure that we specifically invite them and make sure we are targeting those students we know are academically at risk," Hull said.
The application process is open for two weeks.
"After May 21, we will review applications and determine how many students we can accept into the camp. We're hopeful that we can accept as many as our staffing will allow and our capacity will allow. But we are hoping for a really good responses based on the feedback that we've received so far," Hull said.
According to Hull, more than 40 individuals have applied to be Keystone Camp instructors.
The Keystone Central school board will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 13. The meeting is closed to in-person public attendance, but is available via Zoom through the district's website.