Oak Ridge Schools hosts first community meeting on fall Intersession

With the passing of the new Oak Ridge Schools’ balanced calendar for the 2015-16 school year, when school starts on August 3 and there are three two-week breaks every nine weeks, Intersession was introduced for students. Intersession is time, during the breaks, when students can come back to school and work with teachers on areas where they struggled with academics. Intersession is also a time when schools can introduce “enrichment,” when students can come and learn extra things that educators would like to teach to students.

Oak Ridge Schools’ first Intersession will take place October 5-9. Each of the individual schools have been working and planning on activities that they could offer to students during this week. Finalized activities will be sent home to all parents in the middle of August 2015.

On Friday, April 9, members of the community were invited to have a conversation about what Intersession could look like for the whole community, not just the schools, a press release said. The members that attended this meeting included Jon Hetrick of the Oak Ridge Parks and Recreation Department, Ingrid Hamm and Cody Wright of the Extended Child Care Program at Oak Ridge Schools, Adam Wilson and Jennifer Pettyjohn of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Clinch Valley, and Alanna Hunsaker of Oak Ridge Girls Incorporated. All members in attendance talked about how Intersession could be an enriching and engaging break for students and what we would need to do, as a community, to work together to meet the needs of as many students as possible, the press release said.

“The decision of the group, moving forward, was that the community organizations could be flexible to meet the needs of students and that information about what each organization would be able to offer would be available when the schools sent out their information in the middle of August,” the release said.

“The Boys and Girls Clubs are thrilled for the opportunity to work with Oak Ridge Schools and assist the youth of Oak Ridge with some additional enrichment activities during intersession weeks,” Wilson said. “Intersession will give our staff the opportunity to expand programs and make a greater impact as a partner with Oak Ridge Schools.”

The release said parents should be on the lookout for this important informational booklet about the October 2015 Intersession coming home in the middle of August. The booklet will have both school and community information that you can use to see what is available in Oak Ridge for your school-aged children.