Lights On program a success

Hot Springs County School District’s Board of Trustees met on Tuesday night and heard all of the good things that went on with the district over the summer.

Julia Scott with Lights On talked with the board about the summer school program as well as summer camp.

In summer school, there were 43 students between first and fifth grade who attended along with five kindergarteners. Sixth through ninth grades had just 18 students attend.

Lights On summer camp for RWE had 120 students enjoying the activities this summer, which were based on being in the great outdoors and TMS had 47 students enrolled.

They learned all manner of outdoor survival, including first aid, how to cook meals outdoors and even tried their hand at a little mountain climbing.

There have been a lot of questions as to why Lights On is pared down to basically homework help this year and Scott was able to answer that question.

Our school district qualified for the 21st Century grant for Lights On in the past based on the expectations portion of our records. In other words, were we “meeting” or “exceeding” educational expectations across the board or were we falling into the “not meeting” or “not proficient” category.

Sometimes success has kind of a downside to it. The Lights On program has been so successful in getting our students up to speed that we no longer fall below the expectation lines and so we no longer qualify for the 21st Century grant.

The good news, however, is that Scott indicated we should be hearing very soon about the Cohort 13 funding she applied for for the program so at least some of the funding may continue.

Korinne Thoren, high school Spanish teacher, spent most of her summer in Mexico working on her Master’s Degree and she presented some of the ideas she brought home with her to the board.

The main things she brought back with her were photos and videos that she can use in her classroom. Thoren explained that students only get so much from textbooks, but seeing the actual sights and hearing the sounds of Mexico are invaluable lessons for them.

Thoren didn’t just hit the tourist spots that students can view online or in books, but took them down the back streets and neighborhoods of the country so they can get a real feel for the country whose language they’re studying.

Activities Director Brandon Deromedi and Steven Soderstrom ran an open weight room during the summer in an attempt to encourage student athletes to continue with their training throughout the summer.

Roughly 20 percent of the high school athletes took advantage of the open gym times during the summer, which were just an hour long at various times throughout the day.

Deromedi said weight training is critical for athletes even during their “off” times for their program, whether it be football, basketball, wrestling or even cheerleading as it has shown to help with preventing student injuries during the season.

Soderstrom has checked with other coaching staff he knows around the state and their numbers for participation in the weight room in the off season are a lot higher than ours. He and Deromedi are working on a way to up our numbers as well.