According to school board president Layla Spanenberg, the school board plans to implement new courses for this upcoming summer, and along with these new courses also plans to offer online courses for summer school credit through the Indiana Online Academy.

Spanenberg said that any students in eighth grade through junior year can register for these courses, but they only take a maximum of two summer classes.

Among the courses to be offered online for summer school are physical education I and physical education II. Senior Sami Uzzama, who took physical education at the school during summer school previously, said that he thinks the online option will not be as beneficial for students as actually going to the school.

“Summer gym is not just about the credit,” Uzzama said. “By having the course online, future students might not have the opportunity to meet new kids and make new friends. Also, if I had to take an online gym class, I might not actually do the work and just lie about it.”

Spanenberg said that the school has thought about ways to counteract this and they will be able to monitor students to ensure that they are completing the course correctly.

“There is going to be some way that you can track activity that then will be fed online, so there is accountability even though you are not in the classroom,” Spanenberg said.

While Spanenberg said that summer school uses more revenue than it generates for the school system, she said that she believes that it is still worth the cost.

“We recognize that summer school is really an important course to have for some of the classes and electives,” Spanenberg said. “We believe that having these options is really important.”