With the delivery of curriculum disrupted over the past 13 months, the Wright City R-II School District is determined to make up any potential deficits. 

COVID-19 shut down school buildings in March of last year and has since created many challenges when it comes to both teaching and learning. The concern for district leaders is how much the shift in education delivery may have set back students who were not able to learn at the same rate as they did prior to COVID-19.

“There have been a lot of changes as to the way school and learning looks over the past year,” said R-II Superintendent Dr. Chris Berger. “We realize a lot of students may have fallen behind in the process, so we are looking to help get them caught up to where they need to be.”

The Wright City R-II School Board reviewed a COVID “gap plan” during the board’s monthly meeting on April 20, with Berger outlining the multi-layer initiative. It includes a range of interventions that could impact students from kindergarten all the way through senior year. The plan will be funded by the latest round of federal relief money, known as ESSER II. The district received just over $1 million, with stipulations on how the funds can be used.

“This ESSER money has been described not as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but a one-time opportunity,” said Berger. “Hopefully we can make an enduring impact with it.”

Within the gap plan are considerable changes to summer school for those who might have suffered learning deficits related to COVID-19. This includes the potential for extended summer school with a smaller student to teacher ratio of 3 to 1 for certain students, compared to the usual 20 to 1.

“Summer school will look a lot different,” said Berger. “We will identify those students who seem to need the most support in closing the gaps in their learning.”

The district is also looking to provide other learning opportunities during the summer, including the implementation of Wildcat Family Days. This program would provide access and admission for families who would like to take children to educational venues in the area, such as the St. Louis Science Center, History Museum, Big Joel’s Safari and events at local libraries. 

“We’ve identified places families could go for educational outings this summer, and student admission would be picked up by the district,” said Berger. “We hope to be able to pre-buy admission tickets for each of those places and have those here at the district office.”

For high school students, R-II is intensifying its efforts to provide apprenticeships through partnerships with local businesses and technical centers. 

“We are always looking for apprenticeship opportunities,” said Berger. “Typically those are through Four Rivers Career Center, but if we have anybody who is willing to partner with us to provide training for students this summer, we may have funds to do an attractive cost share on something like that.”

Additionally, the district is looking to hire up to four interventionists to help close educational gaps in each building. This role could also help in the realm of social-emotional needs.

“These staff members would be for summer and fall, and would be an intervention specialist who would identify loss of learning and work one-to-one with students,” said Berger. “We’ve had interventionists in the past and have found that to be successful. Each building is planning how they could use their interventionist.”

R-II is also looking to address needs for its growing number of English language learners.

“We’re eager to put some supports in place to make sure those students for whom English is a second language have all the opportunities other students do," added Berger.