When a student falls behind on class credits they have the opportunity to make up those credits in summer school.
“The summer school offered at Carlmont is only for credit recovery. If someone failed a class they can take up to a total of two classes, one class per summer school session,” said counselor Kimberly Miller.
The purpose of Carlmont’s summer school is to ensure students can stay on track for graduation if they failed a class during the school year, so the classes offered are only those that meet college requirements.
During summer school there are two kinds of classroom settings. The first is the traditional class with a teacher and 35 other kids in the same class, and the other option is online classes where specific programs are set up to teach the student the needed information. Online classes are also monitored by teachers to ensure that students stay focus and complete their work and to provide help if needed with the course.
Miller said, “This summer, the offered classes are English, history (freshman and sophomore year), biology, and phoenix classes (online courses) for courses not offered at summer school.”
Despite the obvious benefit of summer school some students may resent having to continue school during their summer break rather than being able to enjoy it.
“I took summer school my sophomore year for math. Even though I was making up credits I didn’t want to be there. All my friends were doing fun things and enjoy their summer and I was stuck with having to finish summer school,” said senior Jordan Benavides.
Even though some may not enjoy summer school there are also students that like summer school more than regular school.
“Personally I think summer school is better than normal school because during summer school they pack your day with the needed information rather than just being you pointless busy work that teaches you nothing,” said sophomore Claudia Meza. “During summer school you’re with the teacher for four hours a day not just one, like in the regular school year, so you have more time with the teacher to get clarification for things you don’t understand or need help with and you don’t get homework.”
There are some students that see summer school as unnecessary because they would rather complete the needed work during the school year and pass rather than give up their summer break to makeup a class they already took.
“Sure, summer school is useful but it’s also [unnecessary] and that if you’re going to spend five hours a day in a classroom over summer when you’re suppose to be on break, you should just spend that energy doing the work for a class here [regular school],” said Senior David Brinzo.
High school is a stressful time for many students especially those who have a lot on their schedule like sports, extracurriculars, and a job. The cause of a student’s failure in a class might be due to a serious personal matter rather than just being too lazy to do the class work.
Brinzo said,“Even though I would prefer to get my work done during the regular school year, I do find summer school helpful for kids that have too much work or personal stuff going on that it’s not realistic for them to finish on time [during the regular school year] so [summer school] can be used to fill that gap.”
Regardless the cause for a student’s need to makeup credits during summer school, in the end the sole purpose for summer school is to benefit the student and help them succeed.
“We want all our students to do well and to be successful, so if a student needs to go to summer school to make that happen, that’s the worst way to spend your summer,” said Miller.
