Staying in Line : Motivation, No-Nonsense Rules Keep Summer School Students on Best Behavior

While administrators all over Ventura County wrestle with discipline problems during the school year, trouble seems to take a holiday at summer school.

Administrators at the eight county districts serving about 9,000 high school students this summer all report a virtual absence of bad behavior.

“Most of our students are highly motivated,” said Chuck Potts, principal of the Conejo Valley Unified School District summer school at Thousand Oaks High.

The no-nonsense rules of summer keep trouble to a minimum, administrators say. Districts do not let students miss more than three days, even with an excused absence, and a trip to the principal’s office will not be tolerated more than once.

“We have two kinds of students,” said Bob Collins, Ventura Unified School District summer school principal at Ventura High. “Model students and gone students.”

This hard-nosed approach to summer school contributes to a passing rate of at least 90% in all eight districts, officials estimate. But it isn’t the only reason why discipline is better than usual.

“The kids have a whole different attitude in summer school,” said Mike Hernandez, who heads Oxnard’s program. “Most want to be here.”

A surprisingly large number--31%--of the county’s 29,000 high school students attend the free classes.

The Oxnard Union High School District has the highest summer-school enrollment, with 4,447 students, 40% of the district’s general student population and an increase of 850 over the 1991-92 school year. The Conejo Valley Unified School District and the Moorpark Unified School District have the lowest turnouts, about 20%.

Students generally go to summer school for three reasons: to make up a failing grade, to get a jump on next year by getting a class out of the way, or to simply enrich their knowledge.

With improvement as their goal, students are more motivated in the summer, as the short sessions provide a sense of urgency missing in the regular school year, officials said.

“There’s not enough time to goof around,” Collins said.

Once enrolled in summer school, even borderline students try harder than usual because “they don’t want to waste their summer,” said Philip Catalano, the Fillmore summer school principal.

Where are the troublemakers? At home, sleeping in, school officials say.

“We have the right kids in summer school,” Collins said, “and even the problem kids are better” than they normally are.

Some students might feel a little queasy hearing the words “mitosis and miosis” at 8 a.m. during summer vacation, but not most of the kids in Wendi McCoy’s 10th-grade biology lab at Ventura High.

“We laugh more and have a lot of fun,” McCoy said. “Summer school is more intense than (regular) school but it’s also more relaxed.”

Students seem resigned to summer school. One of McCoy’s students, Scott Torres, said he would “rather be sleeping late. Class is long and sometimes it’s boring, but it’s OK. And after class I still have time to do fun things.”

Districts schedule summer school for three or four hours in the morning during four- or six-week sessions. Covering a semester’s worth of material, students work at an accelerated pace, reading several chapters a week and getting tested weekly.

“They have to come prepared,” McCoy said. “It’s like college.”

With students having difficulty adjusting to the long morning routine, most districts provide short breaks for food or relaxation.

“I get real tired in the middle hours and want to go to sleep,” Staci Herbert said after McCoy’s class. “But I wake up after the break.”