Horizons of Kent County plans to expand its footprint next summer – bringing its summer learning program for underprivileged youth into Queen Anne’s County for the first time.
The program, headquartered at The Gunston School, will start out with kindergarten and first and second grades with the hope of adding other grades later. Children who qualify for the federal free and reduced meals program at Centreville Elementary School will be candidates for the six-week offering, which combats the academic summer slide many low-income kids experience when the school year is over.
“For us, this is an exciting opportunity to introduce Horizons to a new audience,” said Bob Parks, executive director of the newly named Horizons of Kent and Queen Anne’s. “The most critical thing is that Queen Anne’s County asked for this program. We had a lot of people saying: We’d like to do this over here.”
Gunston headmaster John Lewis said the private school had been looking for opportunities to offer educational programming to a wider constituency. “There’s a big community need for Horizons. Our facility and our mission and that program are just a good match. What it does for the infrastructure is profound and we want to be part of that.”
Since 1995, Horizons has served hundreds of Kent County children at or below the poverty level as part of the growing national initiative to reduce the summer slide. In Kent County, Horizons is located at Radcliffe Creek School, where it serves students in pre-K through eighth grade.
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