A child works on a kindergarten writing exercise during a dual-language summer program at Lot Whitcomb Elementary School in Milwaukie, Ore. Immigrant workers were more likely to lose their jobs during the pandemic, and many are front-line workers.Ībout 15 minutes north of Oregon City, 80 students at Lot Whitcomb Elementary, in the North Clackamas School District, are spending four weeks in a dual-language summer program, reading Spanish-language stories, practicing math skills and talking to each other - a lot. Most English-learner students are the children of immigrants, a population that was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, Gándara said. “They need to be doing things with other children, talking with other children, and not being given worksheets to just remediate.” “These kids have fallen behind more than other children,” Gándara said. When asked about the afternoon, Aylin echoed Finn, insisting the group just played games. More than 50 percent of those enrolled in the six-week program are English-language learners 13 of them, including Aylin and her cousin, are classified as migrant students, meaning their parents are migrant agricultural workers, and they get two additional hours of math and reading in the afternoon. Stephanie Phelps, a summer school administrator, laughed when she heard Finn’s assessment and explained that academic skills are integrated into every activity, even if the kids don’t notice. “It’s not really summer school,” explained Finn McDonough, 7, as he worked on a color-by-number project after finishing breakfast, which is offered free to all students here. Victoria Alonso Guzman, 9, looks on as her friend Aylin Garcia Rosas, also 9, digs pink Play-Doh out of a container during a break at the Explorations summer program hosted at Holcomb Elementary in Oregon City, Ore. The cousins are two of the 465 students enrolled in a brand-new, free summer program for students entering kindergarten through eighth grade in Oregon City, about 30 minutes’ drive south of Portland.
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