TILTONSVILLE — Elementary students throughout the Buckeye Local School District continue to build their minds through the Extended Learning Center Summer Program.

The program, which is currently in its second year, runs from June 2-27 at Buckeye South, Buckeye North and Buckeye West Elementary buildings where an estimated 100 students in grades K-5 are delving into fun reading, math and science lessons as well as physical education, crafts and social-emotional learning (SEL), plus they will attend weekly field trips to exciting local learning spots. Among the sites are the Columbus Science Center (COSI) mobile unit at Buckeye Local High School for hands-on activities, Carnegie Children’s Museum and Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh and the Challenge Center at Wheeling University. The ELC’s operate on Monday to Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with the field trips from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Busing and meals are provided, with breakfast and lunch offered each day at the schools. Meanwhile, each ELC also visited Nicky’s Garden Center near Wheeling on separate days for students to learn about planting and botany.

About 35 students were enrolled at Buckeye South in Tiltonsville, and lead teacher Abby Sempkowski said the students could choose which days to attend but the goal was to keep them engaged after school was out of session.

“This is to help bridge the gap for anybody who needs extra help and to prevent the summer slide,” Sempkowski added, with the latter referring to the loss of academic skills and knowledge that students experience over summer break. According to statistics, students can lose up to three months of reading skills over the summer without practice.

Some students at South said they were excited to participate and learn something new.

“I like playing in the gym and eating,” said soon-to-be sixth-grader Chloe Stewart.

“I think it’s really fun,” added third-grader Charlie Jo Hall.

Officials at North and West Elementary concurred that the program made education more exciting and their students have been very receptive.

Lead teacher Nicole Billingsley said 20 students take part at North and enjoy the sessions and excursions. Like the other sites, her building provides core subjects along with physical activities and SEL programming with help from six staff members each day. Billingsley said the pupils look forward to attending and many are familiar faces.

“They all love coming to the summer program,” Billingsley added. “Most of the group are the same ones who come to the afterschool program during the year. I think it helps keep them on track for the school year and they can still get to interact with their peers.”

Ashley Krzys, lead teacher at West, said 52 students were signed up at her school and participants took advantage of the experience. Krzys said students start their day by eating breakfast and follow it up with a little dance to work off the extra energy, then they jump into their core sessions before heading to lunch. Afterwards, they head into the gym, make crafts and do some SEL activities. She noted that the building has a larger staff and several aides to help lead the sessions while three different gym teachers were also featured and students have learned yoga, bowling and other sports. Krzys commented that the students’ response has been positive.

“The ELC program has been very big. We had 40 kids last year and this summer is probably the biggest number we’ve had,” she said. “The kids really like the crafts and it’s not just textbooks and paper. They are still learning, but it’s fun.”

District Program Manager Dr. Susan Bachmann said after-school activities are held from October to April with homework help, computers, reading and math intervention, arts and crafts and physical activity as well as social-emotional support. Last year, the district was required to hold 100 hours of extended learning and continued those efforts through June with on-site activities and field trips. The ELC’s are currently in the second year of a five-year funding program but the district has taken part in previous rounds. Buckeye Local received the Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Learning Grant with North and West each gaining $100,000 and South garnering $185,000. Officials said the schools receive the same amount for three years, then the numbers decrease during years four and five.