When the final school bell rings, students are sent home for summer vacation and the summer slide begins, but the Batesburg-Leesville educators are working to stop the slide with daily literacy engagement.

The Batesburg-Leesville Summer Literacy program is a non-profit primarily serving Lexington School District Three. It is a month-long project where students can engage with certified educators to expand on the topics they’ve learned during the school year.

“Students who attend our program are motivated to learn; they score higher,” Doris Hicks, the program coordinator for SLP, said.

“In addition to that, they are confident, courageous and they're ambitious,” she said. “They have confidence based on being loved and nurtured over the summer in the absence of their regular teacher in classroom settings.”

 Registration will open on June 10 and classes will begin on June 17. There are no fees for the program and students from kindergarten to third grade are accepted. 

Students are provided with breakfast every morning, followed by a reading from a community reader. 

“Community readers are local people that come in and read books to our students, our scholars,” Hicks said. “Community leaders consist of people such as the mayor, firefighters, police officers, artists and retired teachers.” 

Participants will also have the opportunity to engage in physical activity and work on penmanship in lessons from local volunteers.

“Our purpose is to engage students during their summer so they do not lose the skills they learned from the year,” Hicks said. “Many of them even progress further than their classmates.” 

The program also offers one-on-one sessions with students to focus on areas they may struggle in. 

“It looks like an adult person knowing the deficiency and addressing it, maybe through a book or through practice, if not both,” Hicks said.

The program is open to students regardless of their school district, but students must have a mode of transportation to participate. 

The program was created six years ago by educators when they noticed students falling through the cracks after summer vacations. Classes are held at the Faith Lutheran Church on 113 N. Oak St.

“We're not preparing children to pass state tests,” she said. “We're preparing children to know how to read and to be critical thinkers.”