Waupaca schools, city parks & rec team up

By Angie Landsverk

The Waupaca School District and city of Waupaca’s Parks and Recreation Department are teaming up again.

The newest partnership between the two is called the After Summer School Adventure Program.

Open to students in third through eighth grades, the program is taking place after summer school.

“Last year, the District and Park and Rec had talked about trying to do something that would provide all-day activities for summer school students,” said Ben Rayome, who is the summer school principal.

At the time, the district did not have a lunch program in place, so it tabled the idea for the future, he said.

“We added breakfast and lunch to our summer school program last year, and that opened up discussions for this year,” Rayome said. “We thought it would be great for families to have options for their kids to be active and supervised the whole day for four weeks in the summer.”

Families may register for the summer after-school program through the city’s parks and recreation department.

Registration is open until June 3.

The cost is $40 per session, which is less than the cost of daycare, he said.

The first session of summer school is June 13-24, and the second session is Aug. 8-19.

“Families can sign up for one or both,” said Andrew Whitman, the city’s recreation programmer.

The school district is providing the busing for the students from Waupaca Learning Center to the city’s Recreation Center.

“They will get to the Rec around 1 p.m. and end at 4 p.m. Parents are expected to pick their kids up at the rec center at 4 p.m.,” Whitman said.

After arriving at the rec center, students will be placed in groups.

“Each group will have a leader and a helper,” Whitman said. “Most of the leaders are chosen and are teachers.”

The helpers will be high school and college students.

He said it will be up to each leader what activity is planned for each day of the program.

“We want them to walk to South Park and swim or walk to Riverside Park and learn about critters in the river. We want them to walk to Riverview Park and play on the equipment there,” Whitman said.

If the weather is not conducive to being outside, activities will be planned inside the rec center, he said.

“It’s really open to all kinds of activities,” Whitman said.

This marks the second partnership between the school district and Parks and Recreation Department.

Last year, swimming lessons at South Park began being offered as part of summer school.

“Overall, we see this as a win-win for our families, schools and Park and Rec,” Rayome said of the After Summer School Adventure Program.

Whitman said it is another good partnership between the school district and parks department.

“It’s something we wanted to do to help parents who find it difficult to pick up their kids from summer school or maybe difficult for them to even go because how will they get there and what will they do after it,” he said.