The Wright City R-II school district saw its highest summer school numbers since 2019 during the 2022 summer school session. 

The Wright City R-II school’s district came in just short of 600 enrollment in the 2022 summer school session, finishing with an enrollment of 592. The district increased its enrollment by 46 students over their enrollment of 546 in 2021. The district’s 2019 enrollment was 681 students. 

“We did see a good rebound in enrollment,” Assistant Superintendent Doug Smith said. “Not back to the pre-COVID days yet, but hopefully we’ll get there.”

Smith added the district had positive survey results from both parents and staff. He specifically cited the positive survey result of 3.87 on a four-point scale on the transportation provided for summer school. 

“The most exciting part for me is that as I looked back on these reports over the last few years, almost always the lowest number for parents was transportation. This year, transportation was the highest.” 

The parents and teachers all rated the district over three on a four-point scale on all surveyed items. 

The district also saw an increase of over two in its average daily attendance. The district was up to over 66 in average daily attendance for the 2022 summer school session. The district receives state education funds based on the state formula for average daily attendance. 

Over the last summer school session, the district had 13 students complete one of their high school physical education credits, Smith said. They also had 30 students who had some credit recovery or credit acquisition. 

“We actually had students pick up 24.5 credits over the summer as well in addition to the 13 P.E. credits,” Smith said. “That’s one of those things that Mr. Brooks, Mr. Raney and I are going to try to ensure that we even have bigger numbers.” 

Superintendent Chris Berger said the district plans to discuss the feasibility of revamping summer school programming in the future to potentially offer an even better summer school and make summer school a net positive for district finances. 

Berger said the district is looking at continuing to utilize educational service Catapult for the yearly summer programs until the district can decide whether to develop its own program. 

“At some point, we may look at a deep analysis or what can we do if we did it ourselves,” Berger said. “That may be blowing up summer school and rebuilding it, versus what we’ve done here traditionally. Even better if we come out positive on the money on it. Because there are certainly many school districts in Missouri that subsidize their regular education by making money in summer school. Our goal is to at least get positive. If we make some money that would subsidize regular education, even better.”