The District 203 Board of Education approved the decision to provide transportation to and from summer school for students, starting the summer of 2015.

This decision, along with increased staffing and nutritional access, was made in an effort to increase student access and eliminate barriers keeping students from attending summer school, according to summer school district director Kevin Wojtkiewicz.

“Our overall goal in the summer school program is to increase access,” Wojtkiewicz said. “One of our main issues in the past has been transportation.”

According to a report released by the summer school committee, a summer without learning leaves students one month behind where they left off in the spring. The presentation also said Summer Learning Loss (SLL) contributes to the achievement gap between ‘at-risk’ students and ‘affluent’ students.

Wojtkiewicz said that last year, the district had an estimated 962 students enrolled in high school courses over the summer.

“We don’t really have an estimate for the number of students we’ll have,” Wojtkiewicz said. “We will accept as many kids as will register and will spend as it needs to.”

In addition to transportation, the district also decided to add more opportunities for learning.

According to Wojtkiewicz, four extended-learning opportunities (e-lo) classes will be available to students: Consumer Ed, Geometry, American Government and Health.

“In the past, we’ve had a couple hybrid classes where kids take a class online and just come in for testing days,” Wojtkiewicz said. “E-lo classes, however, are offered fully online.”

Another feature will be a food cart, hosted by Sodexo, for high school summer students. According to Wojtkiewicz, this food cart will be available for students at 10 a.m. between sessions.

Because of an increase in student enrollment, the district is also planning to hire extra class assistants, a special education teacher, a high school social worker and a high school dean.

“We want to make sure that the services available during the school year to students are also available for the summer,” Wojtkiewicz said.

Along with these additional services comes an increased cost. According to Wojtkiewicz, half credit courses are now $180, full credit courses are $360 and driver’s education will be $265 for in-district students.

Many students are planning on taking advantage of the new changes to summer school, especially the transportation.

Freshman Melia Watson was not able to attend summer school last year because she was out of town.

Watson, who is looking to take Geometry as an acceleration course, would not have been able to attend summer school this year either due to limited parental availability. However, because of the new changes, she will be able to enroll.

“My mom, being a teacher, has to work with school over the summer and can’t always drive me,” Watson said. “[The new system] is a lot better because parents work and not all kids can drive.”