Summer school begins Monday in QPS
Published 3:01 pm Friday, May 29, 2026
QUINCY — Hundreds of Quincy Public Schools students head back to class next week for additional help and enrichment ahead of the 2026-27 year.
Summer school begins Monday at Lincoln-Douglas Elementary, Quincy Junior High School and Quincy High School, and the Early Childhood and Family Center offers extended year instruction to eligible students with an individualized education program.
Classes continue through Friday, June 26, with no class on Friday, June 19 for the Juneteenth holiday.
“It won’t look much different than what last year’s program looked like,” QPS Director of Teaching and Learning Kim Dinkheller said.
“This provides that extra support some of our students may need to get them ready to transition to the next grade level,” she said. “One thing we try to do during the summer is create spaces for smaller, more focused learning, smaller groups to personalize learning in a different way than during the school year.”
K-5 Summer Academy Coordinator Katie Hoffman said the program will serve around 150 students.
“They can expect to have a literacy lesson in a small group, math lesson in a small group. They’ll be offered breakfast and lunch, and they’ll have a recess time every day,” Hoffman said.
“The big goal is to get kids that little boost that they need in literacy and math before they move onto the next school year.”
QJHS offers two summer programs again this year.
Four classes on the academic side of the program, known as Comet Boost, target polishing reading and math skills, focus on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, to enhance science skills and explore social emotional learning to help students build self-confidence and conflict resolution skills.
“There’s lots of different supports to try and make them as a whole person more equipped and successful for the following school year and for their future in general,” Program Coordinator Hanlynn Vahlkamp said.
Comet Fuel, the enrichment program, offers four week-long “camps” focused on eco explorers, arts, cooking and STEAM, or STEM plus the arts. “They have some really fun stuff planned,” Vahlkamp said.
Vahlkamp expects around 100 students for Boost and around 30 for Fuel.
“I just want students to see that you have so much potential. If you give people a chance to help you, we can help each other,” she said. “They can help us make better programs for kids, and we can help them to see what they’re worth and what they’re capable of so their future is a little bit more open.”
High school students take advantage of a credit recovery program and an open learning center program allowing students to work ahead on required courses.
The credit recovery program serves only QHS students, but “our open learning center program is open to non-QHS students,” Coordinator Melissa Hinkamper said. “We have a lot of Quincy Notre Dame students who will take civics with us, health or consumer ed, so that gives them an opportunity to free up an hour for next year.”
Hinkamper expects more than 100 students for the open learning center and more than 140 for credit recovery.
Each program offers breakfast – or a mid-morning snack at QHS – with lunch also available for students.
Community support benefits all the programs.
“In Boost, we try to have incentives for kids for attendance, effort, good behavior,” Vahlkamp said. “We’ve had lots of encouragement from the community to help incentivize our kids to perform their best.”
School Zones
The Quincy Police Department reminds drivers that the 20 mph school speed zone will remain in effect during summer school at the Early Childhood and Family Center, Lincoln-Douglas Elementary, Quincy Junior High School and Quincy High School.
The school speed zone is in effect 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. when children are present from June 1 through June 26.
Many times children are present but are not seen by motorists because of obstructions, QPD said, and children drivers do not see are the ones at most risk.
