History of Summer Education - Wood River Community YMCA

Summer education in Blaine County has undergone a significant transformation over the past decade, driven by a shared commitment among community organizations to close the achievement gap, improve educational outcomes, and promote youth development. Central to this effort has been the leadership of the Wood River Community YMCA, working in collaboration with the Blaine County School District (BCSD), national partners and local organizations.

Pre-2015: Foundations in After-School Education

Prior to 2015, the YMCA was actively involved in supporting Blaine County’s youth through an after-school education program offered throughout the county. While BCSD operated its own summer education program, it struggled with low attendance and insufficient funding. In 2015, BCSD ended its summer education program.

2015: The YMCA Steps In

In 2015, BCSD made the difficult decision to close its summer education program. In response, the YMCA stepped in to assume leadership of summer learning in the region. This pivotal moment marked a new chapter in local education, built upon a growing national movement within the YMCA to address summer learning loss, particularly for students from lower-income families.

YMCA of the USA had recently launched Power Scholars Academy, a joint venture with BellXcel (formerly Bell Academy). BellXcel was a national leader in evidence-based summer programming, and YMCA of the USA brought its scale as the nation’s largest youth-serving organization. Together, they aimed to combat the opportunity gap that fuels the achievement gap—a major driver of disparities in health, graduation rates, and lifelong outcomes.

National Evidence: Research from the National Summer Learning Association and RAND Corporation has shown that summer learning loss disproportionately affects low-income students. By the end of 5th grade, these students can fall more than two years behind their higher-income peers in reading and math due to unequal access to summer enrichment. Moreover, students who do not read proficiently by the end of 3rd grade are four times less likely to graduate high school, a key predictor of lifelong outcomes, including income, health, and even life expectancy.

The Power Scholars model brought a rigorous academic curriculum, certified teachers, data-driven assessment, and social-emotional learning (SEL) into a free summer education program. The YMCA led summer education and covered all programmatic costs—including curriculum, testing, classroom staff, field trips and program supervison—while BCSD contributed transportation, facilities, janitorial services, and food service. BCSD also identified and recruited students most in need of this YMCA intervention serving between 70-150 students each summer. The program was a huge success and students made significant academic gains each summer.

2020: Pandemic Response and Crisis Innovation

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in early 2020, it presented unprecedented challenges for students, schools, and families. In Blaine County, schools closed mid-year and shifted to remote learning—an environment that was often inaccessible to younger students whose reading levels didn’t match the complexity of digital navigation or their assigned work.

In response, the YMCA quickly adapted to ensure educational support and saved vulnerable families by providing care at a time when it simply was not available. The Y redirected resources to supervise and support online learners, and in the 2020–21 school year, rented the Mint Building in Hailey and converted its own lower level to serve as schools. This effort served 146 students, providing safe, structured educational environments on days when school attendance was limited to two days per week.

Through these YMCA pop-up schools, staff observed significant learning loss for a majority of our community’s children as a result of the pandemic. Further action was required and the Y’s board committed significant resources to address the issue.

2021: Launch of SummerBridge and Program Expansion

In 2021, the YMCA launched SummerBridge, a new summer learning program that ran concurrently with Power Scholars. Both programs followed the evidence-based BellXcel model, using certified staff and structured curriculum. SummerBridge used LitArt, a literacy-focused curriculum also developed by BellXcel.

This expansion allowed the YMCA to reach 246 students that summer:

Power Scholars: 70 students at Bellevue Elementary School
SummerBridge: 146 students at Alturas Elementary School
Nature Explorer (environmental education): 30 students at the YMCA

To support this growth during a time when many workers had left the valley and when many teachers were overwhelmed, the YMCA recruited and built an innovative staffing pipeline:

The YMCA recruited the College of Idaho, a nationally respected institution for social mobility boasting eight Rhodes Scholars, to help identify 20 bi-lingual education interns. The education interns were hired by the YMCA and in addition to earning paid wages, the Y paid tuition, transportation, and mentorship from a live-in professor.
The YMCA attracted Teach For America, a national organization much like the Peace Corps, to recruit teaching staff to be hired and housed by the YMCA.
The YMCA recruited the Sun Valley Community School to house YMCA teachers and education interns at a very low cost to the Y.
The YMCA asked BCSD to provide teaching coaches for each classroom as well as an additional school building, janitorial, and bussing.
Lee Pesky Learning Center, a regional expert in literacy intervention, offered its only local staff member to the program. Over time, Lee Pesky scaled up its presence in the Wood River Valley and now contributes 7 part-time reading specialists each summer. This partnership transformed Lee Pesky in Blaine County. Today, Lee Pesky offers reading coaches in a variety of other youth programs as its method of program delivery.

2022: Unified SummerBridge

In 2022, newly hired BCSD Superintendent Jim Foudy proposed aligning the summer curriculum with the district’s school-year curriculum for math and literacy. The YMCA agreed, and the Power Scholars and SummerBridge programs were unified into one expanded SummerBridge model.

That summer, the YMCA provided:

Leadership from an Associate Executive Director of Education and a Youth Development Director
35 classroom and leadership staff
Social Emotional Learning, S.T.E.A.M., Weekly Field Trips, Curriculum, supplies, snacks, waterbottles, t-shirts, and other materials along with Leadership

BCSD provided:

15 certified classroom teachers
Transportation, facilities, food services, janitorial staff, and a principal

Other Partners brought together by the Y also contributed:

Far + Wise: 5 staff, funded by the YMCA
Lee Pesky Learning Center: 4 reading specialists
College of Idaho: Continued support in identifying YMCA Education Intern/Staff
Teach For America: 3 Teaching staff housed and fed by YMCA with an education stipend and employed by BCSD as part of its15 certified teaching staff

2023–2025:

Today, SummerBridge represents a powerful, high-impact collaboration between BCSD, the YMCA, and a coalition of partners. It serves nearly 300 students each summer—specifically those identified by their school year teachers as needing intervention to catch up or stay on track.

YMCA invests about $330,000 annually and provides program leadership, curriculum, and a majority of staff along with covering costs for many materials, snacks, training, and fieldtrips.
BCSD invests nearly $300,000 annually and provides certified teaching staff, curriculum, infrastructure, janitorial, food service(federally funded) and program leadership.

Impact: Local test results show that SummerBridge students outperform their peers by an average of +12 points in literacy and +27 points in math between spring and fall assessments. This is not just a success story for Blaine County—it is a national example of a public–private partnership that changes lives.

Staffing has grown such that the YMCA provides (2025):

Leadership from an Associate Executive Director of Education and a Youth Development Director
40 classroom and leadership staff
Social Emotional Learning, S.T.E.A.M., Weekly Field Trips, Curriculum, supplies, snacks, waterbottles, t-shirts, and other materials along with Leadership

BCSD provided:

15 certified classroom teachers
3 S.T.E.A.M teachers
Transportation, facilities, food services, janitorial staff, and 3 admin/office staff

Other Partners brought together by the Y also contributed:

Far + Wise: 10 staff, trained and supervised by the YMCA
Lee Pesky Learning Center: 7 reading specialists working in conjunction with the program
College of Idaho: Continued support in identifying YMCA Education Intern/Staff and student support in training and coaching
Sun Valley Community School: Very low cost housing with financial support from YMCA
Teach For America: Teacher recruitment

Conclusion

To date (2025), the YMCA has invested more than $2,300,000 in summer education alone. Since the YMCA founded SummerBridge in 2021, the YMCA has invested nearly $1.4M into the program. The YMCA’s education response has been significant. In fact, the Y’s pandemic response called its board to risk the organization’s very existence in an effort to protect children.

Since 2016, nearly 9,000 people have participated in YMCA education programs, including SummerBridge, Power Scholars, Parent Institute for Quality Education, After School Education, Apprenticeship, Internship, Pop-Schools, and Nature Explorer. (This total includes duplication where students participated in multiple programs and/or registered for the same program in a separate year)

A stopgap solution to the closure of a school-run summer program has evolved into a world-class model of partnership. The evolution of summer education in Blaine County demonstrates the power of collaboration, community investment, and evidence-based practice.

What began as a response to an urgent need has grown into a dynamic, results-driven program that bridges opportunity gaps, boosts academic achievement, and sets students on a path toward brighter, healthier futures.

Today, the YMCA invests ≈$1,000,000 in its education programs alone and provides more than $1.6M in program subsidies and financial assistance in Blaine County annually. The Y’s current education programs include SummerBridge, Nature Explorer, Bonni’s Garden, After School Education, Parent Institute for Quality Education, Internship, and Apprenticeship.