Dear Elementary School Parents,
As you know, our district is facing severe budget decisions. The district is looking at every possible source for revenue to address the reductions. We initially shared with you the decision to charge tuition for elementary summer school. We have reconsidered this decision. The Summer School (SLI) will be at NO COST to students this year. We will work to cover these expenses in a different manner. The rest of this letter contains the same information we sent to you earlier. If your child is recommended to attend SLI, we hope you take advantage of this powerful learning opportunity.
We are very pleased to share that the district will continue our popular elementary summer school program—better known as the Summer Learning Institute.
We will continue to meet the needs of students entering first and third grades who have not yet secured skills reflected in the “end of year” report card outcomes.
The Summer Learning Institute (SLI) for in-coming first graders will be 4 weeks long, from July 6 to July 30. The Summer Learning Institute will be located at Ann Arbor Open at Mack School. Because we want this learning experience to be both developmentally appropriate and academically successful, the classroom instruction will be an integration of explicit literacy and math strategies, enriched with kinesthetic movement through music. The summer school teachers are some of the best, most effective teachers in our district. Teachers will rotate between literacy instruction and mathematics for every 15 first grade students. Parents will be invited to join the class on Friday of each week for ongoing parent involvement activities in addition to the parent orientation and evening open house.
We will continue to offer a robust 4-week SLI experience in a 1:15 teacher/student ratio setting from July 6 to July 30 for incoming third grade students who are transitioning to the next grade but have not yet mastered essential end-of-year outcomes in reading and mathematics. All students will receive focused literacy and mathematics instruction. Curricula will concentrate on number sense skills along with reading informational and narrative text. Additionally, students will be appropriately matched with 3 powerful technology supported literacy programs: Read 180, Systems 44 and/or Read About.
Your student’s principal and/or classroom teacher will notify you later this spring if your child is eligible to attend the Summer Learning Institute. We urge you to take advantage of this highly successful summer experience. It is very important that all our children begin the next school year confidently and comfortably ready to succeed. Your child’s academic success is very important to us.
Do not hesitate to ask your student’s teacher about this exceptional opportunity. More information regarding summer school events and afternoon camp opportunities will be coming. If you have further questions, please contact your child’s principal.
Respectfully,
Lee Ann Dickinson-Kelley
Administrator for Elementary Education
Ann Arbor Public Schools
