April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
QUIET TIME
How Catholic schools spend summer vacation
Even in the quiet hallway, voices echo from Holy Spirit's gym as summer camp students come inside. Mr. Dame teases them: "Your summer's over already?"
The summer months don't leave area Catholic schools empty. At Holy Spirit, for example, 20 students from Kindergarten to fifth grade will spend six weeks creating, writing and playing during the school's "summer camp."
Patti Leffler, director of the camp, told The Evangelist that the students love being in the school during summer vacation "because they feel at home here. It's only at the end of six weeks I can tell they need a change of scenery before school starts."
In addition to the camp and the ritual cleaning of the classrooms, Holy Spirit offers summer daycare, an oil painting class, an art workshop and a "music makers" workshop.
"We certainly miss the students," said principal Anne Cowling. "But the summer classes and camps give us, the students and the children the chance to be informal - and we see each other in a different light because of it."
Second-grade teacher Suzanne Kienzle of All Saints Academy in Albany started a girls' summer basketball camp there 13 years ago, when the building was known as Holy Cross School.
She can always see the difference summer makes for her students: "They love being the only ones in school. The school has a different tone in the summer and they enjoy the quieter atmosphere.
"In the summer, all the girls are more relaxed and more able to be themselves. Girls who seem so quiet in school will relax and, oftentimes, this giggly, bubbly, more outgoing person appears."
At St. Pius X School in Loudonville, the first week of summer is set aside for the parish and school's Camp for Exceptional Children, a week-long day program for 30 students with special needs from around the Albany Diocese.
The program relies on donations and volunteers and is frequently staffed not only by parishioners, but also teachers and about 25 students from St. Pius X School.
"We take great pride in our students and their work with the camp because they're so humble about it. They don't tell us they're volunteering for it and they don't get anything out of it. They just enjoy working with these kids," said principal Dennis Mullahy.
After that, St. Pius offers a five-week summer camp for toddlers and a camp for Kindergartners through fifth-graders where they play outside and learn cooking, crafts, Spanish and reading.
"Then, around August, the whole building empties out for three solid weeks for cleaning, painting and repairs," said Mr. Mullahy. "We have to take care of the wear-and-tear of 715 students."
Jane Kromm, principal of St. Clement's School in Saratoga, told The Evangelist that a small group of her students sign up for an unexpected summer activity: an accelerated math program.
Taught by Ms. Kromm herself, the handful of students come in Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings from July 11 through Aug. 23 to keep their math skills sharp.
"It seems unusual, but they love it - and, of course, they get to enjoy the air-conditioned classroom every morning," said Ms. Kromm.
This summer, St. Ambrose School in Latham is trying a six-week camp for the first time. But for James Leveskas, principal, summer mostly means paperwork: enrollment information, testing data and files on graduating and incoming students.
While he appreciates the quiet, he told The Evangelist that the months without the students leave the school feeling desolate. A highlight for him is when new eighth-grade graduates stop by.
"Sometimes, in the first week [of summer], our graduated students come back to see the school. I think they realize how much it has become a home for them and how strange it will be not to come back," he said.
All the administrators and teachers said they enjoy their down-time. But they also said the programs and visits remind them of what they love: the business and noise of the school year.
As principal Sister Mary Ellen Owens, RSM, of All Saints Academy put it: "There's no life when the students aren't here. So the first two weeks of the summer are great - but, after that, it gets lonely."[[In-content Ad]]
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