Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

This summer, kids’ classes are a little bit school, a little bit camp

Thurman White Academy Summer Session

Wade Vandervort

Jeshua Cheves, 12, attends the National Archery in Schools Program during summer session at Thurman White Academy of the Performing Arts in Henderson Wednesday, June 9, 2021.

Andrea Katona finds herself walking the hallways at the Thurman White Academy of the Performing Arts a few times each day this summer.

On this particular stroll, the sounds of a first-year band student playing his trumpet can be heard. As Katona, the Henderson middle school’s principal, gets closer to the quad where the music rooms are located, the sweet sound of her students rehearsing is downright refreshing, she proudly says.

There are performers letting loose on instruments in band and orchestra, and others singing and dancing in a specialized class. It’s part of the Clark County School District’s summer accelerator program, which is bringing thousands of students back to campus district-wide in the wake of the pandemic for much-needed social-emotional time.

Those interactions were desperately missed — by students and school staff alike, Katona said.

Thurman White Academy Summer Session

From left, paraprofessional substitute Nermine Gadelrab watches as Quinlin Handley, 14, and Bryant Seegmiller, 11, use VEX IQ Clawbots in robotics club during summer session at Thurman White Academy of the Performing Arts in Henderson Wednesday, June 9, 2021. Launch slideshow »

 “There are no grades. Just come and have fun,” she said.

Summer school is usually reserved for credit retrieval, targeting students who fell behind during the regular year or those who are working toward early high school graduation. CCSD charges $70 per one-half credit for Secondary Summer School for high school students.

The “Summer Acceleration” program is different, using federal pandemic emergency funds to provide free project-based learning — think summer camp — at all schools throughout the district. Children are at their home-school campus for five hours daily, and receive breakfast and lunch at no charge.

On average, 150 students are attending the program at the area’s elementary schools, officials said. It’s 220 students on average at middle schools and 300 at high schools.

The acadamy is at its capacity with 400 students, which is one-quarter of the school’s 1,600 enrollment, Katona said.

Getting the kids active in the summer was vitally important for a handful of reasons, including so the children could become more intimate with the layout of school grounds.

Those who will enter eighth grade in August have only been on campus for slightly over a semester because of the pandemic. Children entering seventh grade, those sixth-graders during the pandemic year that recently concluded, have been there just a handful of days. The academy returned in the spring to in-person learning, but it was under a hybrid model that called for students to attend two days a week.

“It’s nice to put a face to a name and see them,” teacher Lynn Oliver said.

Oliver is the instructor for a robotics course in which students work together to assemble a claw-equipped robot, and then direct the battery-operated device through an obstacle course.

Students select which elective courses they want participate in, going from room to room like a typical school day and working together in socially distanced groups.

The offering list is massive: more traditional activities like archery, music, arts, wood shop, and sports like soccer or basketball; and less traditional like snowboard design, or stage combat.

There’s even a community service elective where students go throughout campus and design bulletin boards or help with beautification projects.

The courses allow children to expand their creativity and gain confidence, officials said.

“Can I teach snowboarding all of the time? The kids are having a blast,” educator Katrina Laws, an English teacher, said.

Many of the children were strangers before entering the program this month. They’ve quickly formed a bond, those friendships that were noticeably missing during the months of coronavirus-forced closures. Some children reported never leaving their home for months, officials said.

“This is probably the most fun (I’ve had) in some time,” 14-year-old Quinlin Handley said. “I’m the type of person that likes to be around other people to be happy.”

Click to enlarge photo

Students attend stage combat class during summer session at Thurman White Academy of the Performing Arts in Henderson Wednesday, June 9, 2021.

The stage combat elective, which teaches the technique designed to create the illusion of physical engagement, is one of the most popular courses and is capped at 17 students. It’s even well-liked by Katona, who joined the group this week and fought with a lightsaber — imagine acting out a “Star Wars” scene with your principal.

“What we are doing, you don’t get to do from home,” said Summer Abell, a rising seventh-grader who is part of the elective.

White is an award-winning performing arts magnet school, having received the Dr. Ronald P. Simpson Distinguished Merit Award in April by Magnet Schools of America for demonstrating the highest level of excellence. The group says it’s a top-20 magnet school nationally.

But during the pandemic, the performing arts were forced to a virtual setting. For one show, students sent in video of themselves performing a certain routine, and instructor Athena Mertes worked hours to combine it into one, uniform event.

The accelerator program has brought them back to the same room to practice with “Big Steps,” the school’s contemporary a cappella group. The kids are singing and dancing, and more important, interacting with one another.

On most days, it’s the quality of the performance that’s most important. That’s still true — but it’s also about finally being in the same music room.

After all, the primary focus is “get to know each other; get to know the school,” Katona said.