Ev’S Ccs Winds Down School Year

Thu., July 9, 1998

By Marny Lombard marnyl@spokesman.com (509) 927-2166

The grills sat ready for action. Kids and parents swarmed toward the shade and a gaggle of boys hung around a plastic swimming pool that held ice and pop.

“This is my fourth pop already,” one said.

Just like any summer picnic, right?

Not quite. This was last week’s last-day-of-school picnic for the Continuous Curriculum School, East Valley School District’s year-round school.

Sort of year-round, that is. The 121 students at CCS started their 7-1/2-week summer vacation this week. Their school year is the same length as every other school in Washington; but the calendar is arranged differently.

They have regular Christmas and spring vacations; their other vacations fall in October, February and May/June.

How did the kids handle the last few weeks of school this year?

“They’ve had a blast,” said Ann Momb, whose 9-year-old will start fourth grade at CCS on Aug. 27.

At last week’s picnic, Momb and scores of other parents and siblings lined the gymnasium at East Farms Elementary School, watching CCS third-, fourth- and fifth-graders spin through a kid-oriented exercise program called Energy 2 Burn, led by CCS parent and volunteer Mitzi Williams.

This didn’t look like most school finales.

Indeed, field trips to Manito Park, Grand Coulee Dam and a Silver Valley mine made the last weeks of school feel more like a summer camp, one parent commented.

A day-long Great Mall Math Quest gave CCS students something special to do on the day that other students started their summer vacation.

Plus, fifth-grader Tony Ellis pointed out, the school days for the last few weeks were shortened by 25 minutes. That was to coordinate start and finish times for the classes, explained Principal Scott Read.

The CCS philosophy is that students learn better when a long summer vacation doesn’t interrupt their learning.

“This is actually a longer summer break than we’d like to have,” said CCS parent and volunteer Jodie Herron.

So, come late July and early August a series of three intersession classes start. One is on Hispanic culture, one is titled “Water, Water, Water” and the final class is on creating a video. Each class runs just one week.

The intersession classes are open only to CCS students and are nearly full, Read said. For next year, CCS has limited openings, kindergarten through eighth grade.

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