After school program aims to bridge learning gap left by pandemic

Libby Elementary School administrators are starting an after school intervention program addressing coronavirus-related learning loss among second and third grade students.

At the start of the pandemic, Superintendent Ron Goodman said educators suspected students who were then in kindergarten and first grade would have the hardest time adjusting. These students lost a third of an important developmental school year when Libby Public Schools halted in-person instruction in the spring of 2020.

“It’s a big percentage of their learning that was taken away and a long time to forget, a six-month summer,” he said at an Oct. 12 school board meeting.

Data collected by school officials confirmed administrators’ fears. To help students struggling in these grade levels, elementary school administrators will host the after school intervention program three days a week. Principal Jeanine Kidwell said the school would run the extra hours of instruction for 20 weeks, from Oct. 25 to April 25.

Inventionalists will rely on a program known as Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics and Sight Words or SIPPS to bring students back up to speed. Teachers have already used SIPPS for summer school instruction.

At the time of the board meeting, Kidwell said administrators were still working to recruit teachers and paraprofessionals for the program.

The district will provide transportation and several drop-off zones for students involved.

Over the course of the intervention, staff will monitor student progress and cycle children in and out of the program as needed.

“So it’s more of a dynamic intervention throughout the school year,” said Kidwell.

As of Oct. 12, staff members were still working to identify which students require intervention. Kidwell said that so far parents seemed appreciative the school was offering extra instruction opportunities.

“More instruction is what is going to help fill those gaps,” she said. “This is just one more hour in the day that there can be really focused instruction based on where the kids are.”

To finance learning loss programs, administrators with Libby Public Schools will draw on federal coronavirus relief funds. State officials allocated $4.25 million in second and third round Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) monies for the district, 20 percent of which Libby officials must direct towards addressing learning loss.

Libby Public Schools also received just over $627,000 through the Coronavirus Relief Fund and $379,116 by way of the first round of ESSER funding.