May 30, 2025

More than 400 Hughson students – from elementary youngsters to high school teens – will have to wait a few more weeks to begin their summer break. That’s because they first have to complete summer school, which begins Monday and runs through June 27 on multiple campuses.

Classes begin at 8:30 each morning and run through 11:30 a.m. Free breakfasts and lunches are available to all students, and there is a fun After School Program that many students also can participate in until 3:30 p.m.

While there definitely is an academic flavor to summer school, it is balanced out by activities that only occur in June – like the weekly rallies and ice cream parties on Friday at Hughson Elementary, a once-a-week raffle at Ross Middle School and attendance incentives at the high school.

“The summer program is a great opportunity for our students and just the right mix of fun and challenge,” said elementary Principal Jeff Persons, whose staff will be teaching 130 kindergartners through fifth-graders this year. “Our teachers are very committed to our students and their learning but also recognize that we need to make it fun and engaging.”

Any student could enroll, but Persons said personal invitations were sent to parents of youngsters who had struggled with a specific subject in the regular school year. The idea, he said, was to “give them extra support and prepare them for the grade to come.”

“Our current fifth-graders, for instance, missed out on full, in person learning their kindergarten and first grade years because of COVID so any extra help we can give them with extended time and focus is great,” Persons explained.

At the middle school, Principal Mary La Rosa said 75 students and three instructors will be focused on English and math.

“Our focus is both credit recovery and helping students meet proficiency in essential standards,” she explained.

The After School Program runs parallel to the summer classes at HES and Ross, and includes some of the same students. Each year, there is a theme for the month; this year’s is “Time Travelers.”

“We will explore different time periods (Jurassic Week, Old West Week, Medieval Times and Future Frontiers),” said coordinator Janet Oliver. “We revolve our learning around these mini-themes each week. In the morning hours we pull in reading, writing and math. We will also have the opportunity for science and other enrichment during the day as well as physical activity.”

There also are different theme-related competitions throughout the month, dress-up days and field trips.

At the high school, summer school Principal Natalie Moring expects the mood to be a little more serious for the 100 teens enrolled there. That’s because those students at risk of not graduating are taking courses they need to pass to earn their diplomas.

“The focus is on credit recovery,” she said. “We also have students taking classes to meet A-G requirements for college.”

All of the high school courses will utilize the FlexPoint online platform. Classes include math, English, world history, U.S. history, biology and chemistry, Moring said. There is also an online county summer school with a variety of classes for high school students to take in July.