BELLE — Maries County R-2 Board of Education on Feb. 25 approved June 9-20 as the dates for the 2025 summer school session. The later start is partially due to snow days extending the school year and Belle Fair being held earlier than usual.

Bland Middle School Principal Mandy Seaver and Belle Elementary Principal Bobbi Robertson proposed the summer school course catalog, which will highlight educational needs again, focusing on where students need extra help. However, due to the Belle Fair being held earlier this year, summer school will be delayed a week.

“We have had big challenges,” Seaver said, adding that last year was because summer school was held at the Bland Middle School (BMS) due to the Belle Elementary School’s (BES) HVAC project. “This year, our challenge is from all of our snow days. Our last day was supposed to be May 20 and you have to have at least one day of separation between regular school and summer school. That put it right before Memorial Day. Now this year, with the Belle Fair being moved to June 4-7, that would be the week after Memorial Day.”

Seaver said families are traditionally absence during Memorial Day because they go out of town, and again during the fair for those who show animals or are just tired from the festivities.

“You have a lot less kids,” Seaver concluded. “Though, we have never had to have summer school during the fair. Last year, we were at the tail end of (the fair) and saw our numbers decrease a bit.”

Seaver said they sent out a survey for the first time to parents and staff, giving them an option for a 10 day summer school, 12-day or 20-day summer school. The most popular response was to wait until after the Belle Fair.

“The percentage of it, a lot of them wanted June 9, starting after the fair,” Seaver said. “There will be a longer separation between the last day of school and the start of summer school.”

The summer school will be educational-based classes and separated by grade level instead of fun classes, though hands-on learning experiences will be available throughout the day.

“Title One will provide remediation services, as well as the reading success plans (RSP),” Seaver said.

Last year, out of 92 students with reading success plans, only 25 signed up for summer school.

“We are proposing we start summer school on June 9-20 and it will run Monday through Friday for two weeks, classes from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily,” Seaver said. “We are not going to do transportation. We have not provided transportation for the last two years. When we provided it at Belle two years ago, it worked out just fine to not have transportation. I think the parents were able to get the students to Belle a lot easier than they are to get to Bland.”

Seaver said the survey from staff and parents about the length of summer school was split. Parents were willing for students to attend a longer period of summer school, but staff didn’t want to.

“Is it what’s best for our students? Maybe not because it’s only 10 days, but we’re already going through June 20 and it is hard to find teachers who want to give up their whole month of June,” Seaver said.

About 67 parents responded to the summer school survey. Around 47 teachers who were interested in teaching summer school responded to the survey. Robertson said about half of each opted for the 10-day summer school. The graphs showed 26 percent of parents chose the 20-day option, and 46 percent were for the 10-day option. Robertson said more parents were for the 20 day option than the teachers.

“Last year we struggled, one to get teachers, and two, by the end of summer school, many students were no longer coming,” Seaver said. “They came for the first 10 days, then they would be gone and then come back.”

Seaver said they still had full enough classes that they didn’t have to dismiss teachers. This year, they asked both groups for perspective to avoid the potential attendance issues.

“We wanted a birds-eye-view from the teacher and parent point-of-view,” Seaver said.

Board President Kenda Sanders asked if the students with reading success plans who need intervention will be targeted to attend summer school. Both Seaver and Robertson said yes.

“Students will be handed a letter and parents will receive a phone call to recommend summer school,” Robertson said. “Just letting them know this will be good for your kid and give them the intervention that they need and the service that they need.”

Seaver said it is mandatory for middle and high school students who may have attendance issues or need credit recovery to enroll in summer school.

“It won’t be as much as last year (for credit recover hours),” Seaver said, adding last year students were eligible for 120 credit recovery hours, but this year, due to the shortened length of summer school, they will only have the option to make up 60 recovery hours.

“They will be able to earn half a credit versus a full credit,” said Superintendent Dr. Lenice Basham.

Basham added that she didn’t believe the Fair Board was thinking about how moving the fair up would impact summers school schedules.

Board Member Dawn Hicks asked when was the last time the district had a four week summer school. Administrators estimated it had been 15 years or more, aside from the 2024 schedule.

“I would think that four weeks would be better for the children who are having issues,” Hicks said.

Robertson agreed.

“It would if they came,” Robertson said. “We don’t see a high number of kids in need come to summer school. When they do, they learn a lot. It would be beneficial if we could get them there. But last year only 25 of 90 kids with (reading success plans) came.”

Basham added that last year, summer school was in Bland due to the BES HVAC project.

“So this year may be different,” Hicks said.

Administrators said they like the full five days back to back for uninterrupted learning.

Summer school will be hosted at the Belle campus. Breakfast begins at 7:30 a.m., and classes will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The board approved the summer school proposal with a 6-0 vote.