A distant dream of summer break – an infinite white sand paradise of freedom from the harsh realities of school – is already thawing and lurking in the back of the minds of students.

Yet, for the more than 270 CHS students who have registered for summer school in the Clayton Summer Academy (CSA), summer break is seemingly the perfect time to set aside the beach towel, return to school, and complete a required course or gain an extra high school credit.  With such high levels of registration this year, however, the administration faced significant difficulties in attempting to meet the needs of students and is now considering revising the current registration process for future years.

The CSA offers a variety of 4-week courses from the state mandatory classes of Personal Finance and American Government to more unique classes that allow students to focus on a specific topic.

“CSA serves several purposes,” CSA Director Paul Hoelscher said.  “It allows students to make up some missed credit in courses like math and English, it provides other opportunities for kids to take required courses such as government, fitness and personal finance; lastly, it offers unique classes that are not found in the school year like filmmaking, computer programming and the history of St. Louis.”

Despite the fact that the State of Missouri does not require school districts to offer summer school programs, the Clayton administration acknowledges the student interest across the district by providing summer opportunities for elementary students and middle school students as well as CHS students.

However, summer school is a significant financial commitment for the School District of Clayton.  It costs the District approximately $350,000 to operate its K-12 summer school programs.  Like the regular school year budget, 80 to 85 percent of the operating costs are for teacher salaries.  Yet, the district cannot charge students by law who are receiving academic credits that will be going on their transcript.  As a result, many school districts that are struggling to balance their budgets are now reducing or even eliminating their summer programs.

“Summer programs, while very important and valued by school districts, are costly to deliver, staff, and operate,” Dottie Barbeau, the Clayton Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, said.  “Some of our neighboring school districts are facing financial challenges and in some cases have had to make significant budget cuts and teacher reductions… Every dollar that is spent for summer programming is a dollar that is not spent during the school year.

When cuts start impacting teaching and learning during the school year, districts have to look everywhere possible to reduce costs and unfortunately because the state does not require summer programs that is one possible place for reduction in costs.”

This year, Clayton’s summer school programs are limited to only Clayton students, precluding students from other districts to attend the Clayton summer programs.

“If we look at other districts, I think we should very grateful for the chance to provide summer school,” Hoelscher said.  “While there are obvious limitations with a short program, our teachers provide our students with a valuable learning experience.  Every year, I am amazed at the amount of content that is presented in four weeks.  Teachers use every minute of every day to help students.”

With the first come, first served approach to registration this year, around 150 CHS students raced to turn in their summer school slips on the first day of registration.

“While there has always been demand for certain classes, the counselors this year helped provide information on summer courses,” Hoelscher said.  “As a result, there was a much heavier number of returned applications on the first day.  The district administration is reviewing this process and has already made some plans for changing the structure for next year.  It is challenging to offer enough classes to meet the current demand.”

Personal Finance quickly filled up with 83 students registering within a few days and 76 students signing up for American Government within a couple of weeks.

In response, Barbeau explained how the administration decided to create an additional Personal Finance section and increase the class sizes for both of the mandatory courses.

Originally the Personal Finance class was going to be taught by two teachers with a limit of 30 students.  However, due to the large student registration, the Personal Finance class was split into two separate sections each with 24 students.  Likewise, five students were added to each of the American Government classes that originally had 30 students each.

“The summer school staff has been working tirelessly,” Janet Crews, the director of the District’s summer programs, said.  “It’s been a difficult process confronting the increased student registration this year and having to create waiting lists for classes.  Nobody wants to turn a student down…We are truly trying to meet the needs of all the students.”

Nevertheless, the administration recognizes the flaws in the current registration process that promotes the competitive race for students to sign up for the popular mandatory classes offered in the CSA.

“The [current] registration process, while in use for a long time, results in inequities for those students who do not get their applications in during the first few hours of the registration window,” Barbeau said.  “We want the registration process to be fair for all interested students, and therefore are working to revise the registration process for next year.”

The administration is already considering a lottery system in the selection process for next year’s summer school program.

“For next year, the actual registration process will involve the counselors and will be modeled after a registration window – lottery type selection process rather than a first in first served model,” Barbeau said.  “We know this doesn’t help the students who have already been placed for this current year, but we have tried to make accommodations to help serve more students in the current course offerings.”

In the end, the administration will continue to listen to feedback from students, parents, and the community, as it continues to strive to meet the needs of students in providing summer school programs.

“Our administration supports our summer programs and feels this is something our community values as well, so we plan to continue offering summer opportunities for our students,” Barbeau said.  “Our goal is to be responsive to student interests and also responsive to student needs as we plan for the summer programs offerings.  Because our summer program coordinators are dedicated to providing the best program possible, they are continually evaluating the program and analyzing feedback so that we can make changes or improvements where needed.”

However, as the District continues to face difficult economic times, it will continue to evaluate its summer school programs.

“As we enter into deficit spending status we do have to more closely monitor our district costs, and that means looking at all of our budget items for areas to conserve funds where possible without adversely effecting programs and services that impact students,” Barbeau said.  “The budget and summer programs costs will also be part of our evaluation process conversations, just as they always have been in the past.”