The school closings due to the Coronavirus pandemic have spread into the summer school season. Students who enrolled in summer school now have the option to take their desired classes online. 

Students who previously could not take summer school due to conflicts in schedule are now able to because it is online. However, it is thought that holding summer school online will not be as beneficial of an experience for students. 

“I don’t think it’s the best way to teach students,” BHS science teacher Richard Frye said. “But that is our only option at this point.” 

The incoming freshmen who decided to take summer school will also not be able to adjust to the BHS building as they would have been able to had summer school been on-site. 

“One of the reasons I wanted to do summer school is because I wanted to get used to the school,” incoming BHS freshman Sydney Hall said. 

One additional negative impact would be that students – particularly those enrolled in a science class – will miss out on experiences that they will not be able to replicate at home. 

“The kids are going to miss out on all the labs we do,” Frye said. 

Online summer school will cover the same amount of material as regular summer school would, which is 5-6 days worth of lessons and schoolwork in one single day. Teachers plan to have online meetings in order to teach their students and take attendance. 

“I would teach the lesson during our face to face sessions. After the session, they would work on their assignments” 

For some students, this large amount of independent work seems like a challenge.

“I feel as though it will be a lot harder,” BHS junior Megan Reems said. “It will take a lot longer to complete the assignments.”

Despite the difficulties of summer school being online, there are some benefits of the situation, such as students getting used to different online applications. 

“[Students] will get more familiar with the online platforms and they will need to figure out how to do their work by themselves,” Frye said.

Overall, the 2020 summer school year will be much different than previous years, but there are positive aspects of the changed summer school session. Though there are negative parts of online summer school, it has its advantages. 

“Online summer school might be easier than a regular year of class because I will be able to work at my own pace and take my time,” Hall said.