Energetic teachers and willing students have been key to a “wonderful” the second intercession week in the new Vicksburg Warren School District calendar, South Park Elementary Principal Dr. Wanda Fears said.

“I asked one student, ‘Did you learn a lot today?’” Fears said. “He said, ‘Yes,’ that he was able to understand a math problem and figure out how to solve it. Sometimes it just helps having a different person teach a particular skill.”

In years past, the break for Christmas and New Years has been two weeks for all students. This year it has been three weeks for most students, while those seeking or needing extra help have been working with teachers in smaller groups since Monday.

Fears has been one of the administrators at Dana Road this week, one of the two district elementaries open to third- through sixth-graders through Thursday.

“I think the students have been looking forward to getting the necessary skills to move them forward,” Fears said. “It’s been a successful week.”

Students in the district’s north zone, which includes Sherman Avenue, Warren Central Intermediate, Beechwood and Redwood, go to Sherman Avenue Elementary School.

Students from Dana Road, Warrenton, South Park and Vicksburg Intermediate schools, are at Dana Road.

Bowmar Avenue Elementary School intercession students are split between Dana Road and Sherman Avenue.

About 600 elementary students or 10 percent have been attending the classes, about the same as the first session in October, said Dr. James Price, superintendent. But only about half of them have been at both, he estimated.

“Something worked,” Price said about the first intercession week.

Between 80 and 88 percent of October’s intercession week students ended up passing the first nine-week assessments after being on pace to fail, he said. “We pinpointed what they hadn’t mastered and targeted that.”

The student-teacher ratio is 7-to-1 for intercession classes, about half the normal ratio. Teachers receive a stipend for the week’s work.

Between 100 and 300 students from the two junior high and high schools have also been sharpening up on skills, from pre-algebra and other subjects to test-taking strategies. Some attend two days, some all five, Price said. “They work on a lot of different things.”

Dana Road hosted about 280 students Monday and 314 Tuesday, Fears said, while at Sherman Avenue, Beechwood Elementary principal Jack Grogan said he helped dismiss about 200 students on buses and 80 into cars as classes let out Tuesday.

Elementary-level classes run from 8 a.m. to noon and will continue through Thursday, but lessons from the week won’t end there.

“When they go back to their home schools the intercession teachers will provide tips to their regular teachers to help them with skills they are weak in,” Fears said.

The theory of having four nine-week segments, each followed by a remedial week, is that students who lag after the nine weeks can get immediate, intensive help.

Only 1 percent of students can be expected to successfully catch up after a nine-week period if time is not spent right then building skills they need to continue, Price said in October. “They have a much higher chance of catching up with their classmates.”

Price said exact figures would be available today, but estimates were that only about half the students who went to October’s intercession required extra help again this time around.

At that session, about 256 received math instruction, 285 reading instruction and 102 non-readers got intensive reading remediation.

The elementary schools are targeting third- through sixth-graders and may add younger students at a later date. In addition, enrichment programs and the chance to take classes that would help a student graduate early are planned to be added to next year’s intercession schedule.

Regular classes resume Friday, and the next intercession weeks will be March 16-20 and June 2-5.

Normal holiday breaks are retained.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com