WINFIELD,W.Va. — Across West Virginia there will be an unusually strong emphasis on summer school this year. Many school districts are using the opportunity to get students back in the classroom and to catch up after many spend the past year and a half struggling with virtual learning.
But in Putnam County, education officials say the need for credit recovery isn’t as big as they anticipated and it has allowed them to move toward a new opportunity to give students some hands on learning in a particular field of study.
“It is career focused and standards based. It’s to mix fun and excitement with our learning as students have an opportunity at two three week sessions,” said Putnam County Superintendent John Hudson.
Hudson and his team made a presentation on the program to the state Board of Education during the board’s most recent meeting in Charleston. The program is called “Project Lead the Way” and focuses on technical training in areas where students indicated a desire to gain more knowledge.
“The programs of study aligns to what our students indicated they were interested in and what our business and industry indicated offered opportunities for employment,” said Dr. Christy Chambers with the Putnam County Board of Education.
The fields of study include biomedical, aerospace, robotics, and pre-engineering.
“They will have in the morning about 165 minutes where they’ll have design and modeling. for discovery of design and processes of engineering and medical ‘detective’.” Hudson explained.
The county was excited about the opportunity to expose Putnam County students at all three levels, high school, middle school, and elementary school to some form of those courses of study where there are needs for employment and students had shown an interest in learning more.