Dexter Community Education

Develop your child's intellect through the royal game of chess! Develop your child's intellect through the royal game of chess! Current research has shown a strong link between chess and academic performance in a variety of areas, including mathematics and language arts. Chess has been proven to enhance children's motivation, concentration, focus, social skills, and creativity. Each class will consist of a fun, interactive teaching period and guided practice time. Both beginner and experienced players are welcome and will learn under the guidance of an experienced Chess Scholars coach. Note: Our after-school classes held in school buildings are open to all students. Please note that students will need to navigate to other buildings on their own if their class is not in their home building.

Elementary Science Olympiad is a competitive science team that offers a variety of team events designed to foster students’ interest in science. After registering for the program, students will have an opportunity to sign-up for an event via Sign-Up Genius and will then practice weekly with their event coach and teammates in a hands-on cooperative learning environment to gain expertise in their event. The program culminates in the Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad Tournament on Saturday May 9th, 2026 at Pioneer High School bringing together students from 40 area schools. Practice times are set by the individual volunteer event coaches and vary depending on the event. An individual event could practice before school, after school or on weeknight evenings. The practice times for each event will be emailed to all registered participants before the event sign-up date. Event sign-up will occur on Sunday January 25th, 2026 via SignUpGenius.com. Event practices will begin on or after the week of February 1st, 2026, at coach’s discretion, and will run approximately an hour per week until the Science Olympiad Tournament on Saturday May 9th, 2026 at Pioneer HS. This program relies on parent volunteer coaches and Dexter will only participate in events for which we have a volunteer coach. We are limited to 21 participants per grade with between 1 and 4 students in each event per grade. Coaching is a way to ensure your child can participate in his or her preferred event! Please reach out to chrissy.hladky@gmail.com if you are willing to coach. To learn more, please review this presentation or reach out to chrissy.hladky@gmail.com