Kent ISD —A steady stream of traffic at the MySchool@Kent building was noticeable all summer long as students made up credits or worked to get ahead.
For the second year in a row, the school has seen summer school enrollment inch closer to 1,000 students. It was 928 this summer, slightly down from last year’s 981 and significantly up from the 550 students enrolled a couple of years ago.
“That was kind of a typical summer school year, and then all of a sudden, we ballooned up,” said MySchool@Kent summer school coordinator Elizabeth Schafer. “It seemed like more counselors at the local schools were taking advantage of the fact that it is such a cool thing to be able to give their kids the opportunity for free to be able to catch up and get on track.”
The pandemic may have created more of a need for students to catch up. About half of MySchool@Kent students are taking recovery credits needed to graduate, Schafer said. Growing comfortability with online learning also has led to the program’s growth, said MySchool@Kent Principal Gerry Verway.
Filling Gaps
MySchool@Kent, which started in 2012, has offered a summer school program for the past several years. The eight-week program allows students to earn high school credits in close to 50 courses including English, science, math, social studies, foreign languages, health and physical education.
Courses are virtual, though students come to the MySchool@Kent building, located inside Kent Career Technical Center at 1655 East Beltine Ave. NE in Grand Rapids, for tests and exams. The format provides flexibility for families and reduces transportation needs, Verhey said.
The summer school program is designed as a supplement for high school. MySchool@Kent’s full high school program is offered during the regular school year.
“Students are not taking a full load of classes in the summer because it’s such a shorter, condensed time frame,” Schafer said. “If a student is trying to graduate, we might be able to tack on an extra one or two credits, but we’re not looking for kids to be sitting in front of screens for eight hours a day and doing nothing but school.”
Catching Up, Pushing Ahead
About 50% of summer students are, like East Kentwood senior Evan Huffman, enrolled for recovery credits needed to graduate.
“I like how you can work at your own pace, which is important to me because I have work and other things to do,” said Evan, who added that, due to catching COVID, he was unable to complete his Spanish I class. “(For MySchool@Kent) I could do the assignments on my own time and it gave me a little bit more freedom that you do not get when you attend an in-person program.”
Some students were missing just one or two credits required to graduate.“Summer is a nice way to be able to finish those up so that they don’t have to face another school year and have a delay getting on with their life or their path,” Schafer said.
Forest Hills Northern High School senior Araya Gonzales represents the other 50% of students at MySchool@Kent, called “acceleration students”. She is getting ahead credit-wise, and making room in her schedule for classes of interest.
“I took a health course because next year I have a full schedule with AP classes,” Araya said. “I am taking both AP biology and psychology. I took a course this summer because I knew that I did not have room in my schedule and it would mean I would have to give up those AP classes.”
Araya said she also took a physical education class last summer, which she liked, so she wanted to attend again this summer.
There is no cost to students taking recovery credits, however; students wishing to pick up extra credits pay a $200 fee.
While completion numbers for this summer were not in yet, last year it was in the upper 60-percentile of students completing coursework. Verway said he expects the 2023 completion rate to be similar.
It seemed like more counselors at the local schools were taking advantage of the fact that it is such a cool thing to be able to give their kids the opportunity for free to be able to catch up and get on track.
– coordinator Elizabeth Schafer.
Middle School Added
This year, the MySchool@Kent summer program also added a middle school with 20 to 30 students.
“Most of those are court-ordered for truancy reasons or lack of progress during the school year,” Schafer said. “So we’re just kind of dipping our toe, trying it out this year to see how much of a need there is and how successful it is and if that is something we want to continue.”
Verway said middle school is different because students are not earning credits to graduate, so there may not be as big of a need for a summer middle school program.
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