By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Last summer, approximately 130 students in grades K-5 participated in USD 428's summer REACH program. The program will return for Great Bend students at the end of June. Assistant Superintendent Tricia Reiser laid out the summer school plans at Monday's board of education meeting.
"The elementary principals wanted to go three weeks with an academic summer school, then three weeks with REACH, which is the enrichment summer school," she told the board. "They wanted to take the week of the Fourth of July off."
Summer school for grades 6-12 will be offered from June 5-30 at Great Bend High School and Great Bend Middle School. The PreK-5 Academic Summer School will be offered in each elementary building from 8:30 a.m. to noon from June 5-23. REACH kicks off from June 26-30, then returns from July 10-21. That program will take place at Jefferson and Riley Elementary schools from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Fridays to allow time for field trips and activities. REACH is available to all K-5 students who are in Skyward.
Certified staff will be paid $500 for both the Academic Summer School and the REACH program. The district's family engagement coordinators will help with REACH programming.
The letters in REACH stand for recreation, enrichment, academic, curriculum, and health. Last summer, the students attended the Barton County Fair and a museum in Hays, and also participated in a touch-a-truck event in Great Bend. The program came to a close with a lemonade war that raised approximately $1,800 that went back into the elementary schools, along with donations to the Brit Spaugh Zoo and Golden Belt Humane Society.