Akimel O'Otham Pee Posh Charter School, Inc.

Akimel O'Otham Pee Posh will be offering a comprehensive summer school program to address the academic, social, emotional and mental health of all students. The ESSER III funds will support one component of the disruptive learning/academic loss with the purchase of Achieve 3000 ELA and Math an online technology program. Students will participate in a variety of scientific experiments and collect data using the modulars for each grade level. Four certified teachers will provide the instruction for 3-5. The students will receive a 45-minute lesson per grade level offered between 9:00 a.m. - Noon four days a week. The teacher to student ratio will not exceed 1:20 or 1:10 because of an assigned paraprofessional. All students will have access to this enrichment program and all subgroups represented at the school i.e., special education, ELL, Native American and high poverty students. The costs for the teachers and the Achieve 3000 program are included in the 20% set aside. The Second Step program, part of the 20% set aside, will address the SEL needs of all enrolled students.

Additional funding is being used to provide PD offered by EQQEConsulting, experts in SEL to the Summer School staff in order to implement the Second Step program. This will include a variety of classes and activities related to the social, emotional and mental health of the students. The PD includes the consultants working with the teachers to deliver lessons to the students and collection of feedback for future lessons. The school has a full- time counselor available as well. The students enrolled at Akiimel O'Otham Pee Posh are participating in virtual learning and have been since the pandemic began. The reservation is closed because of the high rates of Covid. It is anticipated by the summer of 2022 the campus will be open again to students. If not, the Achieve 3000 and Second Step programs can be delivered virtually. The impact on the students enrolled in the school have been affected disproportionately by school closure as well as the ACE indicators associated with trauma and stressful childhood experiences. Historically, Native American students have the lowest proficiency rates on high stakes tests i.e., AZ Merit. In addition, the lack of access to the internet and technology (the digital divide) has been particularly challenging for the virtual delivery of instruction. The 20% set aside will support the Summer School program to address academic loss, disruptive learning and the SEL needs of all students. The 80% set aside will address the technology needs of the students in order to have an effective delivery of a virtual learning environment. In addition, the technology is critical to address the disruptive learning and academic loss from Covid 19 and the digital divide on the reservation.