NEWPORT, Ky. — Some students in Northern Kentucky don't have the option to redo this past school year, so their school district is offering them the chance to get some additional help with their school work over the summer.
Earlier this year, Gov. Andy Beshear introduced a plan to allow Kentucky students to repeat the past school year after pandemic-related disruptions. However, not all school districts bought into that plan for lack of enough interested students.
One of those districts, Newport Independent Schools, is offering students a summer program called "Camp Wildcat." Students will get 90 minutes of math and 90 minutes of reading in the morning, and then they will have enrichment activities in science and social studies in the afternoon.
Newport Intermediate School Principal Dennis Maines said the program gives students the chance to go over something they missed, or didn't fully understand, from this past school year after the district used virtual and hybrid learning models.
"It was a challenge for everyone," Maines said. "You got to think about the fact that public education has been a certain way for hundreds of years, and we basically had to reinvent the whole entire profession in one year... So it was quite a challenge, but our staff did an excellent job. The students, the staff, the families, they were all very resilient."
So far, about 30% of students in the district signed up for the program.
