Gunnison and Crested Butte schools to offer free summer school

Classes will be different from winter program

Summer school in Crested Butte and Gunnison is going to be more like a sweet summer experience instead of the typical classroom lessons students are used to most of the year. That’s the goal anyway for the Gunnison School District’s second summer of classes that will begin this June. Sign-up starts later this month.

With the passage of the mill levy override last fall, summer school opportunities were funded and will now be offered. Last year, summer classes were funded through a one-time PILT (payment in lieu of taxes) allocation from the federal government.
“The goal is to provide an experiential educational program for the kids,” explained Crested Butte Community School summer school coordinator Julia Kidd. “We want to prevent the ‘summer slide’ by keeping kids engaged in the learning process through summer.”
In Crested Butte there will be two three-week sessions for elementary and high school students. Session 1 begins June 23 and will run through July 9 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Session 2 starts July 14 and runs until the end of the month.
In Gunnison, the sessions will be similar, with two three-week sessions. They will run outside of Cattlemen’s Days and be coordinated by Lance Betts and Cynthia Bruton. The first session will take place June 15 to July 2. Session 2 will begin July 13 and run until July 30. Those classes will start at 8:30 a.m. and finish at 11:30 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays.
Each student will attend three classes during the three-hour morning sessions. At least one has to be an academic-oriented session such as math or reading.
But there will be all kinds of options available. Kidd says there is expected to be a Crested Butte history class with visits to the local Mountain Heritage Museum and nearby mines. High schoolers might opt to go on the college tour that will take them to the colleges and universities in the region and state for overnight visits to get a taste of what to expect. There will be an art course centered on nature experiences. Students might take Spanish classes, learn backcountry cooking skills or join a girls’ outing club.
In Crested Butte, a maximum of 175 kids will be allowed in the summer program. More spaces will be available at the Gunnison site. Kidd says teachers are still being hired and final costs for the program have not yet been set. Tuition will be free to students but there is a $25 registration fee to cover supplies. Another reason for the fee is to attract students who are committed to the program. Last year some people signed up and the kids didn’t show up. That bumped kids who wanted to attend the sessions.
Summer learning opportunities have always been a priority of RE1J superintendent Doug Tredway. He likes the direction the new program is taking with the coming summer.
“We are trying to be innovative and creative with the course selections,” he explained. “There will be all sorts of courses at both ends of the valley. For example, there are plans for a welding class in Gunnison. If a student from Crested Butte wanted to take the class, he or she is welcome to do so. In fact any student can sign up. If they are home-schooled or go to a private school, there are opportunities for them to participate.”
Tredway said the summer program could easily grow as more and more kids take advantage of the opportunity to get school credits in a more relaxed atmosphere.
“It will be a different kind of teaching in the summer program,” added Kidd. “As an example, we can get outside for science lessons and use the outdoors as a classroom for so many of the courses. We want to be creative.”
“It is still on the ground floor,” said Tredway. “But with the funding and the staff, we can be innovative. We really want it to be an experience for the kids. It shouldn’t be punitive, but exciting.”
Tredway said the school would be offering the free and reduced meals program for students in Gunnison. He explained that since 42 percent of the Gunnison elementary school students qualify for the federally funded program, this would be an opportunity to help out some families in need with feeding the kids this summer. “We have a lot of pretty impacted families at the south end of the valley,” he said. “We are trying to help them out in that regard as well.”
Kidd said the hope is to limit classes to ten kids. Online registration for Crested Butte will open on April 22. In Gunnison, sign-up is expected to start this month as well.