Summertime, and the Livin’ is … Busy!

Band camp is just one of many activities at DMPS during the summer months.

Band camp is just one of many activities at DMPS during the summer months.

Finally! With the last day of classes at the Downtown School on June 19th all 60+ of the DMPS buildings are officially closed – sort of. The continuous calendar schools will reopen in less than three weeks. And between now and then there are the usual assortment of summer programs and activities underway throughout the district that render formal start and end dates on the school calendar little more than technicalities. The district’s summery summary includes, but is by no means limited to:

  • Metro Kids Care is serving 450 children at 10 sites around the district which are jumping off points for lots of field trips to swimming pools, zoos and amusement parks.
  • The Food & Nutrition Department is serving over 2,000 lunches daily at 31 sites and 800 breakfasts each morning at 23 locations.
  • Science Bound is active during the summer with students straddling between middle and high school participating in programs like Learn and Earn where roughly 100 8th graders about to enter 9th grade go to summer classes to prep them for high school. Another 125 new Science Bound inductees (8th graders-to-be) participate in a program called Algebra Champions where they hone math skills to prep for their 8th grade year. These activities are hosted at North High School and in addition to them a cohort of several high school students are doing Science Bound internships this summer on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames.
  • Thirteen middle and high school DMPS students visited Des Moines’ sister city – Kofu, Japan – between June 9 to 16.
  • ELL enrichment opportunities are available through July 10 at Carver, Windsor, Meredith and Weeks and the ELL Parent Academy is being held every Saturday (except July 5) through July 26 every Saturday from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. at Meredith Middle School and Weeks Middle School. Participants in the ELL Parent Academy will learn about food and nutrition, the Healthy Snack Backpack program, financial literacy, how to get involved in their child’s education, community services including health care and will also take educational field trips to explore the Des Moines area. The program will provide transportation, childcare (three years or older) and activities for students. To sign up for the academy, please call the ELL office at (515) 242-7691 or contact your child’s ELL teacher at the school or your Bilingual Outreach Worker. Priority will be given to newly arrived families!
  • Camp Invention will run from July 14-18 again this summer at Hanawalt Elementary.
  • Central Campus will host the FFA District Leadership Conference on July 6 and, let’s see, there are a few other things going on over there as well, such as:

June 10-23: Horticulture students in Spain
June 6-20: Urban Leadership summer program
June 25-30: Culinary Arts and Automotive Collision students compete at National Skills USA in Kansas City
July 6-11: Culinary Arts students competed at National FCCLA in San Antonio, Texas
July 22-27- FFA National Leadership Conference; Washington DC
July 27 – August 1: 3rd Brigade JROTC Workshop @ Great Lakes Naval Center
July- Polk County Fair: Agriculture student participation
August- Iowa State Fair: Agriculture and Photography student participation

  • Also underway all summer long is the daily feeding of livestock at the Ag Lab on County Line Road and sea life the Central Campus Marine Sciences Lab.
  • Earlier this year Des Moines Public Schools was awarded a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant to provide summer programming to eight middle schools: Callanan, Goodrell, Harding, Hiatt, Hoyt, Meredith, McCombs and Weeks. This grant, coupled with a generous contribution from United Way of Central Iowa, is serving over 1,000 students in arts, culture, STEM, intramural sports and service learning programs. Summer programs are also running at Garton, Hillis, King, McKinley, Monroe, Morris, Samuelson, Willard elementary schools and Brody Middle School.
  • Sixty-one AmeriCorps members are serving in 12 elementary schools and eight middle schools this summer. The elementary programs are focused on tutoring in literacy and/or math. The middle school focus is on keeping kids engaged with school at the critical crossroads of adolescence. During the first six weeks of summer, most members are supporting 21st Century programs. AmeriCorps will also run its own programs from July 21 to August 8 focused on serving incoming 6th graders. Each middle school is hoping to serve 30 students. There will be guest speakers, field trips, and a curriculum focused on social education topics. AmeriCorps, incidentally, is actively recruiting members for the upcoming school year. Check here for more information: https://www.dmschools.org/jobs-dmps/americorps/
  • The DMPS poetry squad is readying for its trip to Philadelphia in mid-July to compete in the annual Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Festival. You’ve heard of the Freedom Writers? Maybe this team should be called the Freedom Speakers given this year’s host city and the penchant these young poets have for “getting free.”
  • High school baseball and softball teams are hitting their midseason strides and at this writing the East High boys are the top-ranked team in the state as they battle toward a return trip to the state tournament in late July at Principal Park. Go Scarlets!
  • Fifty-seven students were enrolled in a free summer Arabic program at Lincoln High School that ran for three weeks in June.
  • The 21st annual summer honor band crash course for middle school maestros camped at Roosevelt this year from June 9-20 and culminated, as always, with a concert on closing night. This year, 181 students comprised three concert bands and one jazz band.
  • Our three continuous calendar schools – Capitol View, Moulton and River Woods – all kick off the 2014-15 school year on July 16.
  • The annual community health fair complete with (FREE) physicals and dental screenings is at East High on July 26.
  • Students are hard at work in the high school Academic Support Labs that spearhead the district’s summer school programming and will round out the Class of 2014 at the summer commencement ceremony on August 12 at Hoyt Sherman Place.
  • Last, but not least, there are community gardens being tended at Hiatt, Goodrell, Capitol View, Hubbell, Stowe, Cowles, Perkins, Smouse, McKinley, and Wright schools, among others.

And  the … well, you get the idea. School never really stops, it just shifts gears for a little while.

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