Jenn Billings, a middle school math teacher in Middlebury, has been teaching summer school nearly every year for more than a decade.
But when her principal asked her this spring if they might expand their traditional four-week program out to six, she put her foot down.
“I’m sorry, if that’s what you guys want — I can’t do it. I literally cannot do it. I will not do it. It’s too much,” she said she told him. Her principal quickly relented and opted for a four-week program.
State and national officials have had big education ambitions for a post-lockdown summer, and schools are flush with federal cash that they could use for expanded programming when the academic year comes to a close.
But many districts are running into the same problem: staffing. Burned out from a chaotic year juggling shutdowns and a blend of remote and in-person learning, many educators are balking at the idea of piling on more responsibilities this summer.
“Those who worked all year are exhausted,” said David Baker, superintendent of the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union. “Outside help is almost nonexistent. I am not sure of the reason for this, but support staff, bus drivers and kitchen workers have been particularly difficult to find.”
Pre-Covid-19, many schools already had robust summer learning and enrichment programs, particularly through the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which mostly operate in high-need districts. And several officials with preexisting offerings said they had been able to fill all the necessary positions.
“We have a longstanding program that we were able to build off of and add a few recent local college graduates,” said Sherry Sousa, superintendent of the Windsor Central Supervisory Union.
But for schools trying to dramatically scale up summer programs — or start them from scratch — it hasn’t been as easy.
“One of the disconnects of this ask is that we’re not the experts on summer camp. We’re the experts on learning,” said Libby Bonesteel, superintendent of the Montpelier-Roxbury Public School District.
Some new money is going straight to summer camps and programs not run by schools. Alongside Vermont Afterschool, the state and the office of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, helped push an extra $4 million in federal cash to programs. Vermont Afterschool also hosts a map of summer programs from across the state — including for those who are hiring.
But the bulk of the available money is in school districts. And, under pressure to spend it, Bonesteel said the district ultimately decided to open several sports camps. But she wonders if the money wouldn’t have been better spent at the municipal recreation department, or some other community partner, instead of asking schools to be a go-between.
“It’s got to be a community thing,” she said. “Schools are tapped. We had a pretty rough year.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Educators balk at extended summer school post-lockdown.
