KSD will continue to offer both credit recovery and credit enhancement courses this summer. The district divides summer work into three categories each for elementary, middle and high school students. 

Credit recovery courses will be taught online and are for students who earned a failing grade in either math, English, science or social studies. The courses will run from Wednesday, May 27 until Thursday, June 18. Emails were sent to families detailing the course expectations the week of May 18 for the first semester recovery courses and on May 26 for second semester courses. Families with students in the Special School District (SSD) will also be contacted if their child qualifies. 

Credit enhancement courses will be offered through Springfield Public Schools on the platform LAUNCH. All courses provided by LAUNCH will be available, rather than the certain courses allowed in the past such as Personal Finance, Health and Physical Fitness. Find the LAUNCH course catalog here. 

These courses will be cost-free to KSD and Kirkwood families. Kirkwood has decided to forego ADA funding, which is calculated with average daily attendance by “sum of all term hours attended by a district’s students divided by the total number of hours school was in session that term,” as explained by a report on Missouri’s education funding from the Show-Me Institute. The funding will instead go to Springfield Public Schools through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Dr. Bryan Painter, assistant superintendent of curriculum, presented this information at Kirkwood’s Board of Education meeting on Monday, May 18. 

Enhancement courses will be offered in both June and July, and students may take up to two classes per month and up to four classes over the summer. Anyone interested must register directly through the Springfield system, and the district website has step-by-step directions on that process. Students who are required to take recovery courses are not allowed to take enhancement courses. Dr. Painter also said that teachers will have the opportunity to apply for LAUNCH positions this summer, and that KSD is looking into on-campus options in late summer. Registration for courses are open until the starting date of each course. June courses began Wednesday, June 3 and July courses will begin Monday, July 6. However, students taking Physical Fitness are asked to sign up two weeks prior to the date the course begins so that they may receive their required Garmin tracker by the first day of class. According to Kelly Nevins, KHS alternative education counselor, some classes are already full so students wishing to sign up for July classes should do so now. 

 The district has also restructured summer professional development, which is now strictly offered online. The opportunities provided will be centered around three topics: culturally responsive teaching and learning, trauma-informed practices and blended learning.