There are many different ways you can spend your summer. Many families take advantage of the break in school to go on vacation. Athletes and performing arts participants often will attend various summer camps, summer leagues or performances. Another way to spend your summer involves going back to the same place you were all year by enrolling in summer school.
Summer school is often given a bad reputation as being a source of shame for kids who failed classes during the school year. However, this is a misrepresentation of what summer school is. Summer school is a great way to take a class without taking space away in your schedule for the next school year.
However, there are some things worth considering before you decide to take a summer school class. For one thing, there is a major time commitment. You need to be available for class and not be on vacation or working at your job during those hours. As summer classes take less time than a normal semester class, you have to be able to keep up with the pace of the material. If all of these things work for you and you have a class to take that is offered in the summer, then it is a great opportunity to make the school year a little easier or more fun for you.
You can also take a class offered in the summer to make more space in your schedule for more elective classes or a study hall. You can either take summer school classes with your high school or a local college if the credit will transfer. In addition to Credit Recovery, where students can retake a class that they failed, the classes Kaneland typically offers in the summer are Communication Studies, Personal Finance and Government, all graduation required classes. The course guidebook states that “Credits for approved courses will receive regular class designation and weighting, and count towards the graduation requirement.” District administrators determine the classes that the school will offer in advance of each summer and then list those options in a document on the Kaneland High School website.
Summer school normally takes place in June for four weeks, Monday through Thursday. As there are only 16 classes to cover about 18 weeks (one semester) of material, each class must cover over a week’s worth of content. The morning classes take place from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and the afternoon class is from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm.
This year, summer school was pushed to July and took place on July 8 through Aug. 1. The morning classes were Credit Recovery, Personal Finance and Communication Studies. In the afternoon there was Government. Joseph Conroy taught Personal Finance, Matthew Czerak taught Communication Studies and Drago Gudovic taught Government.
Credit Recovery is for students who failed a class during the school year. They were divided into two different classrooms based on last names alphabetically. Their programs are entirely online and individual for each person’s class make up need. After the first week of summer school, Credit Recovery students are not required to physically attend class and can attend virtually if they want to.
Each year, summer school is moved back and forth from the high school and Harter Middle School, based on what is happening in each building that summer. Administrators will then choose the less busy one. This summer, it was at Harter in the sixth grade wing.
In addition to those possible complications based on where you live, there were many technical difficulties as well. For the first day of summer school, class was delayed considerably due to the fact that no one could get on their Chromebook. Students were able to open their Chromebooks, but if they tried to Google anything, open their drive or open Canvas, they got a notice saying those things were blocked. It took an hour for the teachers to figure out how to proceed, as most of the summer school curriculum is online. The problem was not resolved until the next day. The Credit Recovery classes were sent home, as there was nothing for them to do.
Classes on Monday, July 15 were canceled due to Harter having no power.
“Due to a power outage at HMS, there will be no summer school for 6-12 grade students,” summer school Principal Brock Feece said in an email to students and parents.
That weekend, the Kaneland area, specifically Sugar Grove, had multiple tornadoes and storms. Many houses and schools lost power.
“Several tornadoes were spotted during Monday’s storm, including one in Sugar Grove, leaving dozens without power and damage reported in several areas of Kane County,” according to an article from the Kane County Chronicle. But it had a huge impact on summer school, putting them an extra week behind.
After these days, though, summer school found its rhythm. Classes progressed without any more major delays. As the class sessions were so long, every hour to an hour and a half there was a 5-15 minute break for the students and teachers to go to the bathroom, get a snack and stretch their legs. However, they couldn’t add anymore days to summer school, so teachers and administrators had to stick with their originally planned end date. Classes were forced to skip some tests, quizzes and summative projects, and some units were glossed over to save time. Although students will get credit for the class, there are definitely things they missed out on.
As the last week rolled around, more unusual and disruptive things occurred. Harter’s administrative team had turned on the bell system and were testing the intercom system at some random moments. Although we soon grew used to the bells and the intercom tests were funny, it definitely broke up the flow of class and was a little distracting.
Despite the occasional obstacles to school during the summer, I definitely recommend taking summer school classes to get ahead. This summer was a wild ride, but I am glad I did it and that I will now be ahead of my grade in one class so I will have the place to take the electives I want.
