Summer school films tonight

A common perception of summer school is deskbound students trapped in a classroom hunched over a book while their classmates frolic outside.

But that's not the reality inside Hawkins Middle School in Belfair, where summer school students are writing, animating and voicing characters as they create computer-animated shorts.

Everyone is invited to view the results at the district's first Summer School Film Festival at 5 tonight at Hawkins Middle School. To make a reservation, contact Laura Pugh at 360-277-2110 or [email protected].

This is the district's first summer school since 2016 due to a shortage of money, said Pugh, the district's summer school principal. They were made possible by Learning Alliance program money.

The summer classes provide high school students the opportunity to make up credits, and students about to enter the fourth through the eighth grades the chance to improve their literacy. The parents and guardians of 300 students were sent invitations to enroll in summer school; 60 are attending classes for five hours, four days a week, from July 24 through Aug. 10.

"We hope they improve their literacy," Pugh said. "But also that they're engaged in a positive school culture."

"We know there's a summer slide for kids, because they're out of school 10, 12 weeks," said Kyle Ehlis, the district's director of curriculum and instructional practices.

Most of the students have computer skills, and the summer school teachers underwent three days of training, Pugh said.

The students are working in groups of three on the short films. Finn Longmate, who will be a fourth-grader next month, said he wants to be a photographer and is the producer of his trio's video. They chose to focus on a character named Vania and were given some biographical touches to work with: her strengths include leadership and confidence, her weaknesses being mean by accident and failing to pay attention to the little things, and she wants to be president. The trio produced a piece about Vania building a tree house with her father, despite his newly broken arm.