Summer School is in full swing at Pilgrim High School. Students come to the school five days a week to participate in a class that runs for an hour and twenty minutes. Many of these kids failed courses throughout the year, but many are also trying to improve a D grade to look better on transcripts for college. Colleges do not accept D’s.

James Hovey, principal for the summer school program and the head of Social Studies for Pilgrim during the year, said summer school acts as a fifth quarter to students. If a student received a failing grade, an F can go to a D and a D can go to a C-. Students are only allowed to take three classes any one summer through the program.

Yesterday, a hot and humid day, the students did not seem happy to be walking in or out of the high school.

Hovey said, “Nobody wants to be here, but the students understand this is a second chance for them, that they need to do this.”

Daniel Marcus, a junior who was in an English II class, said, “I didn’t care during the school year and now I know I have to. It’s easier to focus here.”

Nicholas Sheldon, a senior taking Algebra II, said, “Summer school isn’t as stressful as the school year. There are less students and less distractions. I am doing better and enjoying it more.”

Hovey, who has directed the summer school the past 10 years and was a summer school teacher for nine years before that, said the program that once had nearly 400 students is at a low this year with about 160. He equates the decline to the decline of enrollment for the full year public schools.

There are also less disciplinary issues in summer school, Hovey explained. The students can only have one unexcused absence; with any more they are kicked out of the program.

“We rarely have a student who just doesn’t show up,” Hovey said. “There is always someone making sure they show up every day. The students know what could be at stake .If they took the time to sign up and pay for a class they are going to be there.”

Kathryn Newman, a summer school English teacher as well as at Toll Gate for the full year, said, “It is not that these kids can’t do the work; they can. I can see them succeeding in my classes. It’s just that they don’t do the work during the year.”

She said a lot of the problems students face is that they don’t have the support they need at home or they have poor organizational skills. She said she tries to help her students become more organized, encouraging the use of a calendar or agenda and she gives them several copies of the syllabus.

“We try and teach them to work independently. A lot of the time these kids fall back a bit and can’t catch back up. They get stuck in a hole and give up. Summer school can help those students realize how they can get out of that hole next time they are stuck,” Newman said.

The classes run similarly to how they would during the school year. Students work on common tasks to reach Common Core standards, have assignments, homework and a final exam.

The summer school is not the only avenue to improve grades. Due to the decreasing number in enrollment, there are sometimes not enough students to begin a full summer school course. Students and parents alike are provided with a list of approved and certified teachers that can act as tutors throughout the summer. These tutors are paid privately, but the curriculum and grades are accepted and approved by the school system.

A class needs at least 10 students to run a class. Each summer course cost $270.

The summer school is self-sustaining. The cost of the class pays for the teachers and administration. The school department doesn’t allocate any money to the summer school program.

By Aug. 5, the last day of the program, the students would have attended 22 days or 30 hours of classes to simulate a single quarter.