Some students attend summer school to get ahead, not catch up

Desert Oasis High School is among the Las Vegas Valley's schools holding summer courses. (File)

Keyana Webb, 15, logs on to an academic portal to complete homework for her six-week pre-calculus class while most of her friends are working summer jobs or otherwise enjoying summer break. Webb goes to school for two hours a day, Mondays through Thursdays.

She doesn’t mind. The 15-year-old incoming junior in high school at the College of Southern Nevada is taking summer school courses to get ahead, so she can graduate with an associate’s degree once she completes her senior year of high school. She also took a dance history course during the first summer session.

Webb, of Summerlin, has been taking summer school classes since she was in first grade at West Preparatory Academy, where her father is a counselor. She said she wants to teach her future children the same values.

“He always wants to keep us busy and keep our minds going,” Webb said of her father. “I didn’t like it when I was going because I wanted to hang out with friends and do other things. I appreciate it more now.”

Clark County School District officials said the district has held summer school for more than 20 years. Students have the option to take summer school courses online through the district’s Nevada Learning Academy, an online public secondary school for grades 6-12. There’s a third summer school option for students who have special needs, according to CCSD.

Myke Whalum, 17, is taking a six-week biology course at West Preparatory Academy to get ready for an Advanced Placement class at Canyon Springs High School. The incoming senior goes to school from 8 a.m. to about 2 p.m. weekdays. It’s his first summer school class, he said.

There are two main reasons students attend summer school, said Ana Zeh, a coordinator in the district’s guidance and counseling department. The first is credit retrieval, which often occurs when a student wants to improve his or her grade in a class or failed it, she said. The second is credit enrichment, in which a student wants to get ahead.

“A lot of people always say, ‘Why are you in summer school?’ They always think it’s because I’m behind, and then I explain and they get it,” Webb said.

Not every school hosts summer sessions, Zeh said. This year, 10 schools, including Desert Oasis, Rancho and Sunrise Mountain high schools, are holding classes. Valley-wide, about 4,500 students were enrolled in classes that take place at a school during the first semester, which ended in June. Cheyenne and Centennial high schools are hosting 877 students in the north and northwest valleys, Zeh said. In 2016, 12,096 students were enrolled in traditional summer school, and 11,690 were enrolled in 2015, according to the School District.

Some schools host their own summer schools with funds they are given through the digital learning department, Zeh said.

Students can select the school they attend for summer classes. They also don’t have to be enrolled in a CCSD school and can be from out of state. This is the case for students who may be staying with a family member out of state for the summer, Zeh said. State charter school students also take classes at CCSD summer school sites.

Students who need more flexibility in their schedule also may take online courses at the Nevada Learning Academy, or NVLA, which has been around for more than 20 years, Principal Andrea Connolly said.

“A lot of students like to choose the online version because they can go on vacation …,” she said. “As long as you have (an) internet connection, you can still do your work.”

Any student in Las Vegas or Nevada can take one or two courses — with the exception of physical education 1 and 2 or health — at NVLA. The school offers courses, including math, science and history, for middle and high school students. Students work at their own pace but must keep up with coursework and communicate weekly with teachers via Google phone number text and email.

“In our institution, we have the ability to give our numbers to students, and we’re constantly communicating with them,” said Brenda Hernandez, NVLA project facilitator over quality management. She taught Spanish and French courses for several years.

As of June 30, there were 10,388 students enrolled in NVLA, with 6,633 who had not taken classes there before, she said. Last year there were 10,363 students enrolled.

Connolly said students take courses online for several reasons, including athletes or performers (such as hockey players or gymnasts) who have to travel often, students who have medical issues and can’t attend physically, those who have to support their families and those who have anxiety issues.

She said students also take half-semester courses, including physical education, computer literacy and health, over the summer so they can take other electives during the school year.

Nearly 25 percent of CCSD high school graduates have taken at least one course with NVLA, according to data from the past couple of years, Connolly said.

Webb said she has been able to manage her social life and summer school.

“I try to get all of my work done during the week, so come Friday and Saturday, I can hang out,” she said. “It’s a lot of work, but I’m able to get it done.”

Contact Kailyn Brown at kbrown@viewnews.com or 702-387-5233. Follow @kailynhype on Twitter.