Florence County School District Three has received a $70,000 summer reading camp partnership grant from the State Department of Education’s office of early learning and literacy to help fund its summer reading program.
FCSD3 is one of 14 school districts and organizations throughout the state to receive the grant.
The purpose of the Summer Reading Camp Community Partnership Grant is to expand the existing summer reading camps, which provide elementary school students who are significantly below grade-level reading proficiency with the opportunity to receive quality, intensive instructional services. For students to benefit from the summer program, they must attend regularly and be engaged in instructional and hands-on learning experiences. Grant sites strategize ways to increase consistent student attendance through collaborative partnerships between local community organizations and school districts.
The grant will allow the district to partner with nine community outreach sites to host the FCSD3 Summer Reading Outreach Camp on Tuesdays through Thursdays, June 7-July 21, from 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
“Funding from this grant will allow us to continue to partner with our communities to offer summer learning opportunities in community sites as offered last year,” said FCSD3 Superintendent Laura Hickson. “We are also fortunate to partner again with Farmers Telephone to provide free Internet service at each of our community sites.”
Summer sites include Lake City Housing Authority, Town of Scranton, Coward Community Center, St. John United Methodist Church, Olanta Public Library, Mt. Beulah United Methodist Church, Nazareth United Methodist Church, Savannah Grove Freewill Baptist Church and Wesley United Methodist Church.
“I am very excited about the increased literacy opportunities this grant will create,” said State Superintendent of Education Molly M. Spearman. “This is one way we’re working to stop summer reading loss and provide much-needed help to students. It will be a great way to assist them over the summer with their reading and ensure they hit the ground running when school starts in August,” concluded Spearman.
The outreach sites will be housed within the local communities and housing authorities where students can walk to and from them or it will be an easy drive for parents. Each site will have a school district reading specialist along with an instructional assistant. Volunteers will be used at each site to assist with reading activities throughout the day. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks will be provided through the district Food Service Department.
The goal of the six-week summer reading outreach camp is to provide a minimum of 96 additional hours of reading instruction to a minimum of 70 struggling readers in kindergarten through third grade, based on students’ reading levels. The students are expected to make positive growth in fluency and/or comprehension and attend 90 percent of the sessions.
Independent reading, along with small group reading lessons, will be strategies used throughout the six weeks to focus on reading improvement.