Schools

Pilot Knob Students Go Back to School For Spring Break

While their peers are out on vacation, these Pilot Knob students are getting an academic boost—and enjoying it.

DeMarcus Stransky didn't seem to mind that he was still in school last week while many of his peers were out visiting family or flying to warmer destinations during District 197's week-long Spring Break.

In fact, the 9-year-old student at in Eagan said he was downright enjoying the extra class time that he and roughly 70 other Pilot Knob students got last week, during Pilot Knob's "Spring Break School" program.

"We’ve been going bowling and it feels different; we don’t really get homework, and we do more stuff," said Stransky.

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Pilot Knob's Spring Break School, pioneered five years ago by Principal Tom Benson and school staff, is a chance for elementary students to get extra academic support prior to the statewide Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests, given later in the spring.

While the purpose of the program is to boost achievement through intensive, small-group reading and math learning, the first- through fourth-grade students in the program also take plenty of field trips to the bowling alley, "The Blast" indoor playground and other locations. The students also tend the school's garden and volunteered at Feed My Starving Children event in Eagan.

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"My philosophy has always been, the school is here, it’s open, not all kids are going to Florida and a lot of children need extra encouragment and support," said Benson, who runs the four-day program with a handful of staff and a cadre of volunteers and teaching assistants.

Many of the children enrolled in the program aren't performing at grade level or are in the English as a Second Language program, according to second-grade teacher Maggie Gleeson, who helps staff the program. The students are selected by teachers, or attend at the request of their parents, Benson said.

Last week, Gleeson's 18 students worked on their vocabulary, reading comprehension and math concepts for four hours a day. During that time, Gleeson and two assistants engaged in one-on-one and small group learning.

"The kids get a lot of extra attention and you can focus on things they really need for growth individually,” Gleeson said. Spring Break School also helps with learning retention, Gleeson noted, because the students participating aren't on vacation for an extended period of time during the break.

The school day runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m, and students at the Spring Break School have access to school lunches and busing. The program is funded through District 197's Targeted Services dollars.

"It’s one on one time, they might not get at home, it’s just extra practice reading, because usually when there’s break or a over summer, kids backtrack a little bit,' Gleeson said.

Ananya Seth, 10, also attended Spring Break School last week.

"We get field trips like "Feed My Starving Children," and we don’t get that in regular school days," Seth said. "This is more fun."

 


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