Summer school cuts are raising concerns

As his junior year wanes, Jonathan Gonzalez's journey toward graduation is becoming increasingly complicated.

The 16-year-old Encina High School student's unfamiliarity with some English words has made history his nemesis – he has failed both world and American history. He stumbled in biology as well.

Much of this could be resolved with the help of summer school, his counselor says. But doubt about the future of San Juan Unified School District's summer offerings has cast uncertainty on Gonzalez's graduation prospects – and those of potentially thousands more like him.

Changes to how the state funds summer school for teenagers in need of remediation – made when the California High School Exit Exam became a requirement for graduation in 2006 – are just now percolating down to districts like San Juan Unified.

Under the new guidelines, summer school funding once reserved for all kinds of remediation may only be used now for teens that must pass the exit exam. Students who need to make up credits or want to polish a lackluster (but passing) grade or make room for other electives are left out.

Administrators statewide face desperate decisions about how to cope with dwindling summer school dollars.

San Juan Unified struggled through the changes last summer by burning through reserves. It's unclear exactly how other districts handled the restrictions.

As San Juan Unified looks ahead to summer, administrators are forced to prioritize the needs of at-risk high school students over those of younger children.

"It boils down to choices," said Melissa Bassanelli, director of extended learning and support programs in San Juan Unified. "It's making choices among programs that are all important."

Next month, the school board will discuss how severely it will limit summer school, or what must suffer to avoid that. Gonzalez anxiously awaits the result. Without summer school, he says, "I guess I won't be able to graduate.

"It makes me feel bad. I would let my mom down, who wants me to graduate so much."

His guidance counselor, Andrea Haleva, is more optimistic that between Gonzalez's motivation and her crafty scheduling, the boy will be able to take enough classes to make it. But she and other educators wonder how many like him won't.

"If we were to reduce summer school the way we were told … we would be, maybe, winning the battle of helping kids pass (the exit exam)," said Rio Americano High counselor Chris Brownfield, "but losing the war as far as helping kids graduate."

When state legislators mandated in 2006 that all high schoolers pass the exit exam to earn a diploma, they also restricted what had been an unlimited pot of money for kids needing remedial summer school classes. They narrowed the definition of "remediation" to only those students who had not yet passed the exit exam. And those students could only take summer classes in the part of the test they had failed – English or math.

That left out students who passed the exam but still needed to make up other classes required for graduation.

During the 2007 summer program, 90 percent of the roughly 9,200 San Juan high schoolers needed to make up credits. Only 26 percent of them needed a class to help pass the exit exam, according to district figures.

Roughly 85 percent of 10th-graders in San Juan Unified pass the exit exam on their first try.

While districts can dip into other pots of money to pay for summer school, none is as well-funded, or as historically unlimited, as the remedial category. Other sources come with restrictions – such as limits on how many students can be paid for. And the state has underfunded them – meaning, for example, that districts have received as little as 72 cents for every dollar.

Administrators note that summer school isn't the only option for students behind on credits. They can take independent study, or enroll in adult school.

San Juan Unified officials presented the school board with a plan this month to trim some programs and tap nearly $700,000 in general fund money so the district can still offer a broad high school program this summer.

Then came the governor's dire budget forecast, which included education cuts that Bassanelli described as "devastating." She and her staff are scrambling to come up with a new plan that will go before the board Feb. 12.

Bassanelli said the first priority she'll recommend will be high schoolers who haven't passed the exit exam; second, juniors and seniors who need to make up classes; and third, juniors and seniors wanting to make room for specialized programs like International Baccalaureate or Advancement Via Individual Determination.

It is doubtful, she said, that there will be money to provide summer school for anyone else.

"We're talking about a diploma here, not just another advanced class," Haleva said. "It's hypocritical on the one end to say we're going to do everything possible to raise the achievement bar, but (the state is) not doing everything possible."

Frustrations across the state caused about 100 districts to join forces as the Coalition for Hourly Instruction Programs, a lobbying group trying to effect change at the Capitol.

Their goals: get legislators to broaden the definition of remediation; establish guidelines to stabilize funding for programs like summer school; and ensure the categories are fully funded.

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