‘Summer Breeze’ program will make room for 122 underperforming students
Burbank school officials recently agreed to set aside about $100,000 for a summer school program targeting students who are not performing at their grade level, including those who are still learning English or live in low-income households.
The “Summer Breeze” program will have spots for 122 elementary school students.
The Burbank Unified School Board agreed to allot $99,960 for the program earlier this month, and school officials are contracting it through the Burbank Community YMCA, although it will be housed at Edison Elementary School.
The idea for summer courses for underperforming students came out of meetings in which parents and educators participated, during which they crafted a set of goals and programs aimed to decide how state education funds should be spent on local students, according to Peter Knapick, the district’s director of elementary education.
Across the district last school year, state data showed that there were 1,175 students in kindergarten through fifth grade who were English-language learners.
Spanish, Armenian, Arabic, Russian and Tagalog were the top five languages primarily spoken by those elementary students.
In all, there were 486 English learners whose native language was Spanish, while 427 spoke Armenian and 67 spoke Arabic. Thirty-three elementary students who were learning English last year spoke Russian as their primary language, according to state data, while 24 spoke Tagalog.
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
