I am often asked, “What is it like to work in an empty school building during the summer?” I always find this funny because the buildings are not empty during the summer. As a public building that supports over 1300 students and 200 staff during the year, the summers are less busy than the school year. However, we are far busier than most people think.
Over the last five summers in the District, The schools have hosted summer school with an average of over 500 students. These students are enrolled in a variety of courses including bridge classes to prepare them for advanced course work in the next school year; credit enhancement courses that allow schedule flexibility in the next school year; credit recovery classes; and Summer Freshman Academy courses to help prepare our incoming freshmen for high school. These courses offer wonderful opportunities for enhanced student learning and they can help increase the number of connections students make in high school and improve the student’s sense of belonging in their school.
Lakes Community High School is home to over 30 different sports and fine arts camps during the summer. These camps serve hundreds of current and future Lakes students. We welcome these campers to the building and provide them with activities that help them improve their abilities under the supervision of experienced instructors. We view athletics and activities to be an extension of our academic offerings, they are a great way to engage our young community members in a positive way.
Schools are a tremendous community resource and therefore cannot sit idle for two months in the summer. We are proud of the offerings we present to the community and that we are a running resource twelve months a year. The community’s generosity is inspiring and we feel obligated to make sure we are programing our schools twelve months a year. We are very proud to be a focal point for our communities.
Sincerely,
David B. Newberry
Proud Principal
Lakes Community High School
