One of the topics of concern I often hear people in our community express is “that there is nothing to do in our community for our students outside of school.”
I find this belief quite interesting because we think there are a great many opportunities of our students.
Many of these are related to school and there are many more which come from agencies and groups outside of the school programs. In today’s column, I will try to include a partial listing for consideration for this summer.
There are numerous activities provided by Brown County Parks and Recreation department and by our local Brown County YMCA.
The BETA group is also available with youth activities.
The Brown County 4-H Program offers a variety of activities for our boys and girls.
There are summer camp opportunities at many of our local campgrounds.
The Brown County State Park has a number of youth-oriented activities. Many of our area churches have youth programs.
Our Brown County Library offers a summer reading program.
These are only a few that immediately come to my mind.
Brown County Schools will have several summer school learning opportunities as well. Many of these relate to credit recovery for high school students. We offer Algebra 1 and mathematics lab experiences, English 10, environmental science and basic physical education. Each of these classes will involve direct instruction with a teacher.
There are also a large number of classes which our students may take online for credits. Our online courses are offered through a program called PLATO and are supervised by our high school counselors. Interested students and parents are urged to contact the Brown County High School office at 812-988-6606.
Additionally, we will have a large offering of summer sports team programs. These include football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, golf, cross country/track, wrestling, soccer, baseball and softball. Camps which will include basic skills instruction and open times to work with our coaches in competitive situations are included. Contact our athletic department at BCHS or check our website for updated details.
We also are providing free lunches for students at several locations. These include Brown County High School, the Brown County YMCA, the Brown County Parks and Recreation summer camp program, and the Forest Hills Apartments residential program.
Breakfast has also been added at BCHS from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Lunches at BCHS will be offered from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. These meals will be available at BCHS from May 31 to July 1 and again from July 11-29. At the YMCA, lunch will be served from 11:30-11:45 a.m. June 6 to July 1 and again July 11-29. These are open to any youth younger than 18.
The Brown County Parks and Recreation summer camp program will provide service for its participants. This site is closed to outside students.
The Forest Hills Apartments program is available only to Forest Hills boys and girls. Breakfasts are from 9:30-10 a.m. and lunches from 11 to 11:30 a.m. These are offered from June 6 to July 1 and again July 11-29. These programs recognize that we have a number of boys and girls who would not receive breakfast and lunch without this program.
Some of our readers will recall that a very committed and active group of persons in our community have worked to send food home with our students on the weekends in backpacks. Our free breakfast/lunch program will help our students over the summer months when they are not regularly in school.
The programming which I describe involves the use of our facilities throughout the summer months, despite the need we have to clean, renovate or refurbish. Visitors to our schools will see youth engaged in activities all summer long.
It is important for our boys and girls to remain actively engaged over the summer. Much has been written about shorter summer months. We know that some students lose academic ground over the summer when they are not actively engaged. We hope that parents can find activities, such as these listed, to involve our boys and girls.
I certainly think this list demonstrates that our community provides a lot of programs for our children, even when school is not in formal session.
David Shaffer is superintendent of Brown County Schools.
