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District reports improved summer‑school success rates; about 800 students participated
Summary
The superintendent and district instructional staff reported preliminary summer‑school results: about 800 elementary students were initially qualified after a raised state cutoff, 18 elementary sites participated, secondary summer school served roughly 800 students with an 85% middle‑school and 90% high‑school course success rate (preliminary).
District instructional leaders presented preliminary results from the 2025 summer‑school program at the July 8 Beaufort County Board of Education meeting, reporting higher course‑completion rates than the previous year and expanded program participation.
Karen McKenzie, the district's secondary director for teaching and learning, told the board that the state raised a qualifying cutoff this year, which initially left right at 800 elementary students eligible. "We had 18 of our elementary schools that participated in summer school," McKenzie said, adding that staff kept some students "on the invite list" who were near the cutoff because they believed the extra support would help. The elementary program emphasized phonemic awareness and word recognition aligned with the science of reading, and included Project Lead the Way enrichment modules.
On secondary programming, McKenzie said the district served "over 800 students in secondary, 147 educators," and reported an 85 percent middle‑school success rate (up from about 76.9 percent the prior year) and a roughly 90 percent high‑school success rate (up from about 80 percent). She noted the data were preliminary and some seniors were still completing work, so success rates may rise slightly. The district also reported multilingual summer programming serving roughly 505 students and extended school‑year services for 21 special‑education students at two sites.
Board members thanked teachers, principals, transportation and food‑service staff for the operational effort. Superintendent Dr. Lee and instructional staff said they will continue to review and finalize the data and bring confirmed results to board committees as appropriate.
What happens next: staff will finalize the data review, report confirmed outcomes to the board and committees, and continue planning for next year's summer‑school program.
