Students of Edmonds School District are once again facing a lack of support with a change to the online summer school classes, which makes them inaccessible to most students. The summer school program eligibility policy the district has been using for multiple years has been changed to restrict enrollment to only those students making up credits from a failed class. Now, if a student wishes to get a new credit from summer school classes, they must go through ‘Red Comet’ or BYU Online.
This may seem like a small change to some, but a single BYU Online course costs upwards of about $200, a single ‘Red Comet’ course is around $300. Compared to the $60 or $70 fee for summer school classes before, this is outrageous. Some student’s families would have no trouble paying this fee, but this is a public school where the district has to accept that, for most students, $200-$300 is out of the question.
Some of our most prominent programs at Terrace are the STEM and music programs, so it is no surprise that many students would like to participate in both.
Previously, that was easy because they could use summer school for credits that their schedule would otherwise lack time for. Being in two hard but rewarding pathways. It is still possible to take both, but it requires following a fairly strict schedule that is impossible for some students already in their last years of high school.
Terrace also has dozens of other electives students may want to take part in. These include visual, musical, and performing arts, not just music and STEM. Over the summer, most students don’t have very many academic activities they can take part in. Summer school can help those students keep a consistent schedule, which makes the transition between summer break and the school year easier. When given the opportunity, many students will stay up later and sleep in.
The shift in both schedule and purpose can lead to declines in mental health, and makes the return to school in the fall that much more difficult. Summer school is not only a daily task that can get a student out of bed and doing productive things, but one that has the motivation to earn high school credit and move toward the goal.
The district is still figuring out exactly how this change works, and hopefully, it will become a bit more lenient after some time. At least for the moment, they are still making some exceptions for certain circumstances. At this time, it is unknown whether they will bring things back to the way they were, but these summer school changes are already seriously affecting students as their anxiety over the uncertainty rises.
Students must advocate for themselves using at the school board meetings and make their voices heard so that negative changes like this one do not continue.
