In an effort to help students who are falling far behind in their studies, to the point where the students start to lose hope of catching up, principals Scott Wilson, Batavia High School, and Ashley John Grillo, Batavia Middle School, have developed an innovative new afterschool program to help the students make up for lost time.
Wilson described the program as "creative" at Tuesday's meeting of the City Schools Board of Trustees.
The board unanimously approved implementation of the program after Wilson's presentation.
The program will be held at the high school on Mondays through Thursdays from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Wilson said he would anticipate from five to 15 students participating in each five-week segment.
There would be a rotating group of teachers running the sessions each day and the program uses online courses designed to help students with makeup work as well as group learning.
"The goal is to have enough progress for the students to recover," Wilson said.
Students fall behind for a variety of reasons, from home life, to illness to other distractions and they often would like to keep up with their school work, Wilson said. That's hard to do when each day is filled with the current day's schoolwork.
During the course of the academic year, students get grades that are really just progress markers, Wilson explained, but the most important grade comes at the end of the school year, so the goal of the program is to provide midyear course correction for those who "go off-roading," Wilson said.
Wilson hopes to implement the new program starting in January.
