WARREN — School board members commended city students’ academic achievements at Tuesday’s board of education meeting, as administrators said they are seeing progress since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chief Academic Officer Wendy Hartzell told the board members that students struggled with fully learning at home, but a large portion of the district’s students have shown remarkable effort in regaining academic accomplishments.

Monroe Center, 261 Monroe St., is an extension of Warren G. Harding High School that hires qualified teachers and academic interventionists to specialize in assisting students with credit recovery.

“Our plan for Monroe for this coming school year is really to focus on recovery,” Hartzell said. The school will look to provide students with a morning and afternoon session, with up to about three students per session.

The layout for sessions would allow students to take their required courses at Harding during a part of the day, and then receive focused, supported credit recovery time at Monroe. Other teachers also will be present for tutoring in content-focused areas. Gifted areas of learning also are a priority.

Credit recovery usually begins with 10th-graders, but upperclassmen are the first priority. In the 2021-22 school year, 242.5 credits were recovered, and 165 of them were recovered by seniors. The following year, 166 students enrolled to receive 302 credits through the program, district officials said.

Hartzell explained that the students worked diligently to graduate, especially through the use of the Ohio state standards-aligned learning platform FuelEd.

“Some students need intervention, which we will continue to do, but some students really need to recover,” Hartzell said. “Part of that is recovering credits for graduation, and that is a huge thing. Over the last two years, we’ve had fewer students enrolled in credit recovery. But they’ve focused and recouped more credits than ’17-’18, ’18-’19, and ’19-’20, combined.”

In order for students to graduate from Warren G. Harding, they must acquire 21 credits and show competency.

Students can show competency by: scoring proficiently or higher on end-of-course exams in algebra 1 or English language arts 2, taking College Credit-Plus math courses and passing with a C or higher, earning 12 points from industry-recognized credentials or showing that they have enlisted in the military. Students also must show readiness to graduate.

Harding students are considered ready to graduate if they attain their graduation seals. They must have one state seal and one local seal. According to the Ohio Department of Education, each seal demonstrates academic, technical and professional readiness for careers, college, the military or self-sustaining professions.

“Each seal allows students to demonstrate knowledge and skills essential for future success in their chosen post-high school paths,” the guidelines state.

Last summer, 36 students earned all 12 points for their industry recognized credentials, and nine other students earned six points, in just three weeks. Construction, hospitality and tourism, business marketing and finance, information technology, collaboration with YSU, absorbing foundational skills and CPR are qualifying areas in which the 12 points are attainable.

Warren City School Superintendent Steve Chiaro added that traditional summer school “is just not as effective as it was 10 years ago.” Because smaller numbers of students participate in traditional summer school, Chiaro further explained, “It is definitely going to look different. It’s going to take a couple of years for us to find our niche on where that fits best.”

dnewman@tribtoday.com