toledoblade.com --

The air in Elyse Stoll's algebra class last week was hot and humid - more conducive to napping, she said, than learning.

"I've never fallen asleep, but some people do," the 16-year-old Start High School senior said. "We only have one fan for the room, and it doesn't really help anyway."

A total of 654 high school and junior high school students from Toledo Public and a few other school districts attend summer school in similar classrooms at either Start or Rogers high schools.

But many high school students this year have chosen to forgo summer school in favor of making up failed courses online in the comfort of their homes.

"Our numbers have dropped, in part because many students are doing online classes through the Phoenix Charter Academy," said Jan Kilbride, assistant superintendent of high school education at TPS. "It's a convenient way for students to work at their own pace and make up a subject."

Two hundred students are taking 300 semester hours this summer with the charter academy, which is sponsored by TPS but operates independently. Before the online summer courses were offered, nearly 1,000 high school and junior high school students went to TPS classrooms for most of the summer.

Nationwide, more and more school districts are offering online courses for core subjects like algebra and reading.

Susan Patrick, director of educational technology for the U.S. Department of Education, said 36 percent of school districts nationwide offered online courses during the 2002-2003 school year, the most recent year for which figures are available.

"I was surprised by how high the numbers were," Ms. Patrick said.

"There has been tremendous growth in distance learning, and for [summer school] it is no different."

TPS officials say the online option is more attractive than traditional summer school.

"They can do the work any time they want, at their own pace, and of course, the attendance requirements don't go into it," said Kevin Rupp, assistant principal at Bowsher High School.

Bob Mendenhall has a full classroom for his science course at Start High. Some students are repeating courses, while others take a summer class to free up space in their fall schedules.
( THE BLADE/HERRAL LONG )

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Just over 90 percent of the high school students taking classes through TPS this summer, whether online or in the classroom, are retaking a failed course.

Mr. Rupp said the other 10 percent have chosen to take a required course - usually physical education - so they can free up a spot in their fall schedule for an elective.

The percentage of suburban students taking summer phys-ed classes to clear space on fall schedules is generally much higher than those retaking core subjects at most districts, including Perrysburg and Sylvania.

Many Sylvania school district students used to take summer physical education classes in Toledo Public Schools until the district began offering its own course. This summer, 227 students are taking gym in Sylvania.

"They can get that credit out of the way and take an elective during the school year," said Jane Spurgeon, the district's director of summer school.

Summer school enrollment for TPS elementary students this year is 610, nearly the same as last year.

Nearly half of those students this year are third graders who attend classes in buildings that mostly have air conditioning.

Up until this year, summer school was mandatory for fourth graders who did not score high enough on the March proficiency test for promotion to fifth grade.

With changes in the state's mandatory testing, however, summer school is now mandatory for third graders who perform poorly on the third-grade achievement test, said Jeff Williamson, principal of Toledo's Sherman Elementary School.

School districts that offer summer classes become a magnet for students since most area school districts do not offer summer school.

Genoa Area Local Schools in Ottawa County had planned a summer school this year but decided it could not justify it financially, Superintendent Dennis Mock said.

"At the high school, we did not have enough sign up," Mr. Mock said.

"We needed 20 in each class category, and we were in the five to six range. So, in a way, I guess that's good news."

Genoa students who needed to take summer school attend classes in the Oregon or Fremont school districts, he said.

Rather than summer school, some high schools are now offering summer courses designed to help students improve their chances of passing the Ohio Graduation Test, which every student in the state must pass before receiving a diploma.

Springfield High School, for example, has 15 students enrolled in an "OGT Academy" and expects that number to increase. Bowling Green High School has 40 students taking an Ohio Graduation Test course this month.

"We did pretty well with this being the first year the OGT was out there in all five sections," said Kathy Zachel, assistant superintendent at Bowling Green.

Cory Sosbe, a senior at Cardinal Stritch High School in Oregon who is taking summer school math at Start High in Toledo, probably spoke for many summer school students when he said it would have been better to pass the first time around.

"Once we get done with this," he lamented, "there is just two weeks of summer left."

Contact Ignazio Messina at: imessina@theblade.com or 419-724-6171.

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