Looming budget cuts will cause changes in summer programs for San Ramon Valley Unified School District students in a few months.
According to an email sent to district parents on Feb. 20, K-12 students will be affected by the changes being made to courses this summer. For students in grades eight through 10, grade remediation will no longer be available to complete over the summer.
The district is facing $24 million in budget cuts for the 2025-26 school year. The email to parents did not indicate how much the elimination of summer school would save the district.
Instead, students will either have to retake the class during the regular school year or utilize Personal Learning Initiative offerings (PLI).
PLI offerings include expanded language school program, internships, reduced credit requirement for graduation, flexible schedules and PE credits for Independent Study.
Current juniors will only have credit recovery available over the summer. These courses will now be offered through Edgenuity because no in-person instruction will be provided. Non-college prep courses are the only courses eligible.
Summer school classes offered by the district at Cal High last summer allowed students to remediate failing grades so they could earn credits.
Administrative teacher on special assignment Michelle Mascote, who was one of the summer school principals last year, said the purpose of grade remediation through summer school is to give students a second chance in a class.
“That redo factor is really important for a young person so they can maximize their learning and growth,” Mascote said. “We also have students who, during the regular school year, may have struggled with a healthcare issue or a family issue, which negatively impacted their learning.”
American government and world history teacher Alexander Geller was also one of the principals last year.
“Students will no longer, for a couple years, be allowed to take summer school,” Geller said. “So if they do not pass a given course, there is no opportunity to remediate in person.”
Currently, students can only retake courses online or take the course at a community college while summer school is unavailable. For now, it isn’t clear how long summer school will be canceled.
“I feel this is going to be short term,” Geller said. “I hope it’s no longer than three school years.”
But Geller hopes students will learn from this and improve their grades considering they will have less opportunities to remediate.
“I would hope that students realize that there is no opportunity and maybe try harder so they don’t have to take summer school,” Geller said. “But it could also have an effect where students might have issues with getting the required credits they need for graduation.”
Junior Sofia Avila has never had to remediate a class before but feels it could be hard for people doing pathway courses.
“Imagine that you’re trying to do a pathway [and] you have to do it again next year,” Avila said. “I feel like that’s really going to affect people. I think there are other ways for people to remediate a class but I don’t know if people know them.”
Students in grades five through seven have no changes in math advancement programs. But for TK through fourth grade students, there will be no summer school offered. As a result, many high school students who volunteered for summer school at elementary schools in the past will lose this opportunity.
Sophomore Kritika Khandelwal volunteered the past two summers and said it was a good experience.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to earn a lot [of volunteer hours], especially to get it over with for things like the PVSA [President’s Volunteer Service Award],” Khandelwal said.
Khandelwal earned more than 75 volunteer hours last summer for helping during summer school. She thinks volunteering at summer school was a good opportunity for her to learn new skills.
“I do think that the experience was beneficial,” Khandelwal said. “I was able to gain communication skills with people around me that I’m working with like teachers and other volunteers, along with kids younger than me.”
