HOPEWELL, Va. (WRIC) — Saturday classes are officially underway for students of Hopewell City Public Schools as part of a new program offered by the school system geared towards academic success.
On Saturday, Feb 3, Hopewell City Public Schools began Saturday classes as part of a program to offer 13 sessions for students who may be struggling academically or need to make up for classes missed.
The program is being funded through the Virginia Department of Education’s All-in Plan, a $418 million investment dedicated to “high dosage academic tutoring, accelerating the expansion of the Virginia Literacy Act (VLA), and combatting chronic absenteeism.”
Byron Davis, Hopewell City Public Schools Director of Balance Calendar and Coordinator of Tutoring told 8News the optional program will give students who are in need a better chance of moving forward into the next grade level and avoid being retained.
“When someone isn’t ready, they’re not always promoted. Students are retained, and when students are retained, they’re retained because they’re not ready and we don’t want to put them in a situation that’s a lose-lose where they’re already destined to fail,” Davis said.
The program is now added to the after-school tutoring and intersession courses offered by the school system which runs on a year-round system. Davis said that the added efforts will also help students who continue to struggle with lingering effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re talking about COVID-19, so it technically started all the way back in 2018, but we didn’t even really get a declaration of it officially ending until last school year and we’re still getting information about rises of different variants now,” Davis said. “In addition to that, it’s changed the way that families think about whether or not to send their child to school when there might be possible sickness and we don’t want anyone to get sick, but you cannot learn if you are not there.”
Hopewell City parent Katelyn Connor has her daughter in after school tutoring for two days a week and said that is enough as she takes into account the need for a mental break for all three of her children that are in school year-round.
“I think just mentally they just need to have that break from learning there at school, you know, all day long, and then by the time they get home, they don’t have much time to wind down before it’s dinner,” Connor said. “For parents to have their kids on routines and dinner [then go to] bed and then those that play sports sometimes — I just think they definitely need those two days to fully unwind and relax and have that break from school.”
Vach’y Walker is a mother of two children who attend an elementary school in Hopewell. She told 8News she is not in support of the initiative.
“I do feel like [students] need a break just like the adults need a break—going to school Monday through Saturday is just, for me, not an option,” Walker said.
Walker also shared concerns about the transportation measures for the program.
“They’re [school administrators] saying that the parents would have to drop them off — that’s preferred…to drop them off or if they do take the bus…the child would have to walk blocks — these are elementary school students,” Walker said. “If the children are absent, that’s something they have to work out with the city with truancy.”
The new program will run from Saturday, Feb. 3 to May 11 with food and transportation to be provided.
