By Carol Chmelynski
5/6/03 -- With school districts facing increasingly bleak budget prospects, many are cutting back on summer school or charging tuition for the first time.
It was only a few years ago that many school districts expanded their summer school programs as part of efforts to end social promotion -- sometimes making summer school mandatory for failing students.
Now despite increased pressure to raise student achievement, budget deficits are forcing districts to cut summer school, as well as teacher pay, transportation, extracurricular activities, professional development, and other areas.
Fees charged
"Districts are really looking hard at their summer school programs and making either definite or contingency plans to scale back," says Scott Croonquist, executive director of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, based in St. Paul, Minn. "Some districts are examining whether to charge fees for summer school."
That's what the Rockwood R-6 School District in Eureka, Mo., is planning to do this summer for non-resident students.
For the past six years, the district was reimbursed $125 by the state for every student attending, so no fees were charged, says Associate Superintendent John Scatizzi. "This amount allowed us to break even, but now there's talk the legislature might cut that reimbursement roughly in half, and we need to be prepared."
Students living outside the district will be charged $500 per course.
Last year, 125 non-resident students were among the 5,000 students who attended Rockwood summer schools, he says
This decision might reduce the number of elementary children taking enrichment courses this summer, Scatizzi says. But because neighboring high schools have eliminated summer school altogether, those students who need certain courses to graduate will make up the difference. They will have to pay if they want to graduate.
Even with tuition charges, the district just hopes to break even, says Scatizzi.
Due to severe budget cuts, the Pickens County school district in Easley, S.C., is eliminating summer school classes for elementary school students.
Middle school students will be charged $150 for the 14-day, session and must provide their own transportation, says Earl Gilstrap, director of secondary education.
High school students will be charged $250 to make up a course they failed if they receive a recommendation from a teacher saying they need more time. After completing the course, they will need to pass a competency-based test to be promoted to the next grade.
The district also will hold the middle school and high school summer classes at the same site to avoid administrative redundancy.
He says school officials are concerned about middle school students unable to afford the $150 tuition.
"The chances that a student will drop out if retained one year is significant -- 25 to 50 percent -- but if they're retained two years, it's more like a 95 percent chance they won't graduate," he says. "These are difficult decisions."
Anderson County School District 1 in Williamston, S.C., has had to slash its summer school program for students in grades 1-8 from 30 days to 12 days and from six hours a day to four. Classes are over by noon, so the district no longer has to serve lunch, says Superintendent Reggie Christopher.
"This is all out of necessity; we don't want to do any of this," he says. "We've known for years that time on task is important for academic achievement and when you cut that time by 18 days it will affect students negatively."
A reduced summer session will save the district $100,000, he says. This year's budget was cut by $1.7 million, and that's on top of a $3.2 million reduction over the last two years.
Anderson County will retain its long-standing practice of charging high school students $275 to retake a failed course in summer school.
This is the second year in a row that the Duval County, Fla., school district has had to pare down its summer programs.
Fewer classes
Classes this summer are limited to gifted students, those who speak English as a second language, and third graders and seniors who have failed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, says Beverly Strickland, director of middle school programs.
According to Strickland, 50 of Florida's 67 county school districts did not offer summer school last year.
The only summer program for middle schoolers in Duval County is a dropout prevention program for students who signed a contract at the beginning of the year, she says. Most of these students have already been held back two grades.
Instead of dealing with grade promotion through summer school, "we felt it would be more sound to take care of it during the school year," she says.
But it takes a while for students, teachers, and parents to get used to this way of thinking, she says, and the district won't know how well this approach worked until the end of the school year.
"It involves more than the kids," she says. "Teachers have to absorb the concept of allowing kids to revise, redo, rework -- and give grades again."
The district is trying to break the pattern where students repeatedly fail, knowing they can make up the work in summer school.
The schools worked to help students at risk of failing during the school year, but some students and their parents thought they would have the summer to catch up. "Those people are anxious now, because there's not going to be a summer program, and they might not be promoted," she says. But she does expect fewer students will fail this year.
At least two urban school districts -- Minneapolis and Miami-Dade -- decided to drastically cut their summer school programs, then revised their plans.
Change of heart
Minneapolis Public Schools had expanded its program in recent years, allowing some 20,000 students to take enrichment or basic skills courses or to allow high school students to make up courses they failed.
The district announced April 17 that nearly 14,000 students wouldn't be eligible for summer school this year because of budget cuts.
Then on April 29, the district reversed that decision, announcing summer school will be available for some 17,000 students.
School board member Judy Farmer says the board reconsidered partly because other safety-net summer programs for students, such as those run by parks and recreation centers, have been cut, and partly because of the way the state is calculating district funding.
The district is facing a $29 million deficit and is using some of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's transition funds to keep the summer school program running at the risk of having less money for the regular 2003-04 school year.
According to Farmer, the summer school program has been revamped this year to make it much more rigorous.
High school programs are targeting students who have a credit or two to make up to graduate or have not passed the state basic skills test and students who are learning English as a second language.
At the elementary and middle school level, the summer programs are aimed at students who have not passed the eighth-grade test and those who are at risk of not doing well on the state tests.
Enrichment programs have been eliminated, and summer school will be held at fewer sites to hold down facilities and transportation costs.
Last year, Miami-Dade County Schools spent $46 million on summer classes for 135,000 students.
Superintendent Merrett Stierheim proposed slashing the budget to serve only 21,000 this summer, citing doubts about the educational value of summer school.
The school board approved a plan April 21 for a $20.5 million summer school program serving 88,000 students.
Summer sessions will focus on remedial work for low-performing students and recreational day camps -- which will include some light educational components such as storytelling and chess -- for others.
"We had to pick the best of bad choices," school board Chair Michael Krop told the Miami Herald.
The district is negotiating partnerships with parks and recreation departments to help fund and run the summer program, which would operate in as many as 68 schools. "We can ill afford to dump thousands and thousands of students on the street," says board member Frank Bolanos.