Learning Matters: Taking a look at summertime choices
By any definition — school year, season or temperature — summer is here. Luckily for families concerned about day care or summer learning loss, or who just want their children to have active fun away from video games, the community offers plenty of options for children and youth.
I started exploring summer scheduling when I returned from my own month away, and I’m still enjoying the positive after-effects of a change in routine. So here’s a partial list of what the school district, city parks, and libraries have going for kids.
First, there’s summer school, which the state doesn’t fund to the extent it once did. This year, according to student services director Scott Anderle, the district is providing 3,048 middle and high school students with remediation classes, while the Glendale Educational Foundation has enrolled nearly 1,000 more in fee-based classes for advancement.
MORE: Read past columns from Joylene Wagner >>
The school district’s Early Education and Extended Learning Programs, known as EEELP, which provides before- and after-school programs for students during the school year, entered “camp” mode for the June 6-Aug. 5 summer season.
At seven elementary and two middle schools, it offers half- or whole-day sessions for two to five days per week, exploring weekly themes such as animation and digital filmmaking, coding and robotics, culinary arts and rock music, while supporting core curriculum.
Program coordinator Carol Gregory told me EEELP has enrolled 525 elementary-age children, 27 middle schoolers, and 128 preschoolers so far this summer, including students from outside the district. I visited a coding and robotics class at Toll Middle School, where a student showed me the operating keyboard he’d wired using Play-Doh.
Patty Betancourt, the city’s day camp coordinator, happily reported this summer’s enrollment when I called her. “This week alone, we have 498 children at Verdugo Park, Griffith Manor, Maple Park, Pacific Park, and Sparr Heights,” she said, adding that she anticipates a total of about 4,500 served by summer’s end.
“We’re capped out!” she said. It’s the first time the sites have all filled in her seven years managing the camps. But there are still some openings in upcoming sports, skating, and arts camps.
Meanwhile, 25 “Traveling Teens” are “exploring fun locations using local bus lines,” she said, and 12 older teens are gaining experience as counselors-in-training at various park sites.
Asked about the reason for the increase in enrollment, Betancourt replied it was probably the “reasonable pricing coupled with fun activities, weekly field trips, and time with friends.”
During a recent lunchtime walk through Verdugo Park, I witnessed some of the “time with friends” as I passed clusters of children sitting on the grass under the park’s magnificent shade trees, seemingly on their own while under the watchful eyes of the camp staff.
I took special note of Betancourt’s report of the out-of-town sisters who return eagerly to camp for two weeks every year during their stay with their grandma. More information (for grandmas and others) is available at glendaleca.gov.
Library programs are flourishing, too, despite Central Library’s limited hours during its remodel. This year’s count of summer readers isn’t in yet, but children’s librarian Theresa Robinette hopes it will exceed last year’s 7,000 participants.
The summer reading program runs to July 30, with reading incentives for all ages, including books for children, teen chances for iPod Shuffles, and bags of Trader Joe’s groceries for adults.
The libraries also have evening programs. I attended a Monday night program at the Adams Square Library, where upward of 25 children and their parents experienced comedy and juggling “up close and personal.” Upcoming evenings include magic, puppetry, and “mad science.”
The full summer library schedule, available at GlendaleLAC.org., includes movie nights, music, games, “Barks and Books” in collaboration with the Pasadena Humane Society, and, of course, story times.
Both Robinette and her branch colleague Katherine Loeser expressed their excitement about this year’s online addition to the summer reading program.
“It’s exciting to be one of the first library systems in the state to try this,” Loeser said.
The library offers free use of computers, including iPad minis and other mobile services.
All this information about city and school district programs leads me to the subject of retirement of Jess Duran, the city’s director of community services and parks. For 38 years, Duran has worked to improve the lives of children and families.
From the development of the joint-use Edison-Pacific Community Center and Cerritos Park to the Adams Square Mini Park, from summer camps to youth employment, from trails and soccer fields to winter shelters for the homeless, Duran has been there. Duran is truly a man for all Glendale’s seasons, and the city will miss him.
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JOYLENE WAGNER is a past member of the Glendale Unified School Board. Email her at jkate4400@aol.com.
