WARSAW — With the approach of the summer months comes summer vacation and freedom from academic responsibilities for the vast majority of the student population. Even so there are some who have historically found that the existence of summer school will be restricting their summer freedom. However, summer school programs in the Warsaw area are not what they used to be.

“Warsaw Community Schools offers the most inclusive and extensive summer program in the state,” Said JoElla Smyth, principal of Edgewood Middle School and the summer program coordinator for Warsaw Community Schools. “Over the course of the summer we will serve over 2,000 students,” she continued, smiling as she spoke.

Smyth had been offered the job of summer program coordinator five years ago, in 2011, with the stipulation that if she couldn’t whip it into shape in one year, summer school programs would simply be terminated. “In the last five years our summer programs have expanded tremendously,” Smyth said.

There are programs for pre-school, kindergarten, grades one through three, four through seven and a variety of subjects offered on the high school level. “At the high school level we offer any subject required to graduate,” Smyth said.

Not only are these summer school programs popular, they’re also effective.

“We’ve had excellent results for students who do only 13 of the 17 days in our summer school program,” she said. “The data would show that it’s very effective.”

A few of their summer enrichment camps are in fact, still open for registration. For more information call (574) 371-5096 or email JoElla Smyth at [email protected].