The Extended School Year (ESY) program offered to special education students who qualify at Mars Area School District will remain at the elementary school for students in grades K-6, after parents spoke up about a proposed change in location at a board meeting Monday night.

The program, which usually serves about 50 students in total with 35 in grades K-6, was previously scheduled to be moved to the Mars Area High School location.

Middle and high school students in the program will still participate at the high school this year, but the younger students will remain at the elementary school.

The program typically runs from July 5 through July 28, Monday through Thursday, Mars special education director Travis Mineard explained. On Wednesday morning, he confirmed that the program would not be at the high school for younger children.

“(The program) is based on a student’s IEP (Individualized Education Program), and the teachers and speech therapists and OTs, they have the services and they work on the goals from the IEP,” Mineard said. “It’s directly related to the educational program — we’re not working on the new skills, it’s making sure that the skills that they mastered or were about to master are maintained.”

Mars parent Justin Will asked the board to reconsider the idea of moving the program so as not to cause problems for younger students, like his son, who is in second grade. If the program is moved to the high school, he said, his son will not be able to participate.

“Last year, over the summer, (ESY) was fantastic,” Will said. “It’s really what he needs. He needs a little bit extra help and needs to be in school over the summer time, and so when he gets back to school, it’s not so different for him.”

Will said keeping the program at the elementary school could help students get used to the school building, and that the equipment at the elementary school is better suited for the younger students.

“I know it was designed around the summer cleaning schedule, but I know everyone in (this) room currently, all school board members, would not put the summer cleaning schedule above the needs of all students,” he said. “I would like you to try to rethink that.”

Mars parent Julia Konitzky expressed her concern at moving the program, saying that it would put extra work on teachers who work with special education students.

“Special ed. teachers, as all of our teachers, work really hard, and I feel like the special ed. teachers have to kind of do a little bit extra, with doing IEP’s and scheduling meetings and things like that,” Konitzky said. “Now, they have to literally take autistic support classrooms and wrap them up on a pallet, and have them shipped over to the high school and unpacked and repacked. I just think that that’s really unfair to do to these teachers that have worked so hard.”