WESTBROOK – The day that school children dread is almost here: the end of summer vacation. However, for teachers, staff and some hard-working students, summer vacation was anything but time off.

For administrators, the summer was a time to develop a renewed, district-wide focus on learning. Classroom staff readied rooms for opening day, educators worked with students to fight “summer slide,” and a few students used their time off to prepare for a nationally recognized performance opportunity.

Musical summer

While many classmates spent their summer at the beach, senior Molly Douglass and junior Gabriella Latini spent their vacation practicing for the honors ensemble of the National Association for Music Education, an elite group for high school students that will gather from Oct. 27-30 in Nashville, Tenn.

Douglass, 17, and Latini, 16, still have a few months of practicing with the marching band and their private instructors before the event, but practice never really stopped for the two since school ended last year.

Douglass, who also runs track and cross country, said she’s been running and playing music all summer, while Latini spent two weeks at Miami University’s Frost School of Music Summer Camp in July, before taking another two-week road trip home to visit colleges.

According to Leah Arceneaux, program director for the National Association for Music Education, 33 students from Maine are traveling to Tennessee for the event, in which students will play for about nine hours a day and get a chance to work with top music directors.

Students qualify for the program by being a part of the state National Association for Music Education ensembles. Those who make it past that prerequisite round then submit a 2-minute video of a performance to NAFME officials who pick the students for the national event.

Fighting ‘summer slide’

For teachers and staff, the summer has been spent interviewing hundreds of applicants for 33 open positions in the district and helping kindergartners prepare for their first day of school. They have also been teaching summer reading and math programs to improve children’s literacy and keep minds sharp.

While data is not available yet on whether the summer programs have prevented or at least slowed the “summer slide” of students losing some of what they learned the prior year, administrators hope the strategy will improve test scores in the future.

“We’re really excited to look at the data in September to see how much of an impact that time over the summer had on maintaining their skills,” said Kate Hersom, principal at Canal Elementary School.

Superintendent Marc Gousse said the district will be renewing its focus on learning this year.

“Not that the focus was ever off of learning, but there were other factors like the economy and some other things that have taken up a little bit more time,” he said. “We want to make sure the focus is on proactive and strategic learning.”

To help achieve that, the district is implementing a system that helps students learn at their own pace and in their own way.

“Learning can look different for different students,” said Gousse. “It’s a huge paradigm shift, but we have to be adaptable. It’s like with math problems, if you get 10 out of 10 math problems right, why would you do those same problems again?”

Part of the implementation of the new learning process will begin with the new common core curriculum, which will be phased in over a number of years. Many schools are adopting the common core curriculum across the country. This means students in Westbrook are learning the same things as students in Portland, Maine, who are learning the same things as students in Portland, Ore.

Ritual, routine

One thing will remain consistent throughout all the schools: on the first day back their principal will be outside to greet everyone.

“We just can’t wait to see them. We’re really excited they’re coming back,’ said Janet Crawford, principal at Congin Elementary School. “There will be a lot of high fives and smiles.”

Crawford said the first day for her elementary school will really be about getting back in the routine of school and for students to explore their classrooms and building and to meet new staff members.

The focus for the school this year is to improve attendance and raise the achievements of each student, said Crawford. She said while attendance isn’t bad at the school, some students miss up to 20 days in a year, which can have an impact on learning.

“One of the first things we’re going to do is to try to come up with some incentive for the kids to do really well on their NECAPs, [New England Common Assessment Program] and those are in October,” Crawford said. “We want to do a really good job because our test scores affect the governor’s [Paul LePage] report card rating for the district. We want to make sure the students are well prepared.”

At Canal Elementary School, Hersom said she’s excited for the first day because right from the start this year, students will be learning. The first thing she’s implementing is the positive behavioral support philosophy, which is a guide on how students behave in the cafeteria, in their classrooms, on the playground and in the hallways.

Brian Mazjanis, principal at Saccarappa Elementary School, said the first day back is one of his favorites because he gets to see all of the students again after a long three months away and hear all about their summers.

This year, Mazjanis said, his teachers have spent the summer reading different books, like “How Children Succeed,” by Paul Tough, and will be doing book studies on what they’ve learned from the reading materials, much like the work students will do later in the year.

Mazjanis said on the first day, much like at Congin, students will learn the routines of the school and explore the classrooms. He said he’ll make visits to each classroom and introduce students to new teachers.

Middle-school students will get right back into the swing of things, starting the learning experience on Day 1, said Matt Nelson, principal.

“The kids will be reading every day, writing every day and using technology every day as part of the literacy focus that we have,” Mazjanis said. “That’s not something that just falls on students. It falls on everybody, and we will continue to encourage families to do the same.”

This will be the second year that fifth-grade students will be at the middle school. Mazjanis said while last year went well, the school also learned a lot and will continue their efforts to make sure all students feel that they belong. As part of that effort, new playground equipment was delivered late last school year and will continue to be used by the Grade 5 students.

At Westbrook High School, Jon Ross is coming back for his second year as principal. He said the main focus for freshmen and sophomores this year will be to challenge them academically, while providing support for social and emotional developments that crop up in the first few years of being a teenager. Teaming up classrooms in these grades has worked well, said Ross, and that system will continue and expand in Grade 10.

For the juniors and seniors, Ross said, the school will continue to prepare students for their futures by expanding his successful internship program and offering more hands-on opportunities and other alternative learning options for students.