Fall Break Begins, ‘Holiday School’ Now in Session

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Fall break for Bibb County Schools started Monday, but one school plans to advance its students by teaching a few extra lessons.

Hartley Elementary School students showed up to class, even on their break.

Educators launched their ‘Holiday School’ program this week with after receiving the School Improvement Grant (SIG) awarded by the United States Department of Education.

“We were one of the elementary schools-the only elementary school-that is the award recipient of a $3 million dollar grant to basically transform our school to be a turnaround school,” says Garcia.

Leaders at Hartley to created programming focusing on remediation and learning development with the goal of turning around the number of academic achievers.

School improvement specialist Arrika Tunstell says the program boosts confidence, and academic excellence in children.

“While the students are out, we’re bringing our students back, so they can receive additional instruction on standards and concepts they’ve already been taught,” says Tunstell.

More than 40 students attended the class session on Tuesday.

“Our vision here at Hartley is to become a 90-90-90 school. Where 90 percent of our children are on free-reduced lunch, with that also said, 90 percent would pass reading, 90 percent would pass math and 90 percent would pass language arts, so we’re on the way to improving,” says Garcia, “We’ve already made a 12 percent increase over a two year period.”

Tunstell adds the objective of the program is for their kids to have the skill sets for success.

A school with high goals and higher expectations, Hartley Elementary plans to continue “Holiday School’ during each seasonal break.

All Hartley Elementary students are invited to attend sessions this week from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. until Friday.

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