SALEM — Polynomials, factoring and line graphs.
This isn't the way Jason Comtois, 17, envisioned his summer.
The Salem High School senior usually gets A's and B's. But when he got a D in Algebra II last year, he knew what he had to do.
Comtois signed up for summer school, hoping he could improve his understanding of the material he didn't grasp the first time around — and hoping the course wouldn't ruin his summer.
"I didn't know anyone when I walked in the room," he said. "I thought it was going to be terrible, but it's not that bad. We get to work independently and I do better that way."
Summer school has changed. Most students aren't enrolled because they failed courses. Two out of three students in Salem's math program are like Comtois — enrolled because they want to improve their grades.
Almost 90 Salem High School students are enrolled in summer courses this year, which required the district to add another teacher to the summer school staff.
Christine Jefferson has taught summer school for more than five years and said nine out of 10 times the students finish the summer course with a grade that was better than the first time they took the course.
She believes that's because they are motivated to be there, and it's material they've already learned once.
"This should not be new to them," she said. "It's an in-depth review of stuff they've already done."
So, instead of lecturing to the students, Jefferson assigns them work and encourages them to approach her desk when they are struggling.
There is never a lull in the line that forms at her desk.
And students, including 16-year-old Kattey Ortiz, are not embarrassed to get in that line.
"We're all in the same boat of trying to understand it," she said. "I kind of wish school was like this more, where we can work at our own speed."
It's a model Jefferson agrees helps most students succeed.
"This would be the utopia of education," she said. "If every student moved on at their own pace and then when they, as individuals, understood it ... but it only works for summer school."
Summer school courses require a final exam and students receive a grade for their work. That grade doesn't replace the grade they got the first time around, but it is averaged into their grade point average and class rank.
That's reason enough for Comtois and Ortiz, who both want to attend college after high school, to stick with the course until the final exam in three weeks.
Ortiz, who usually gets A's and B's on report cards, said she's already understanding more of the material than she did the first time she took Algebra II.
"I've always understood math, but, for some reason, algebra really killed me," she said.
She said friends and family were surprised when she told them she was signing up for summer school, but so far it's a decision she doesn't regret.
"My mom knew I was having trouble ... but I think she was kind of disappointed at first," she said. "She didn't think I'd ever need to go to summer school."
Comtois said his mother also was surprised when he signed up for summer school, and equally as proud.
"(My mom) was actually happy," he said. "I didn't give up and just take a lower course next year."
And Comtois has another reason to work hard. Each summer school course costs $190 — a price that Comtois's parents told him he'd have to pay.
Jefferson said several parents follow that policy.
"A lot of parents say this is ridiculous, you had the option for extra help, you didn't take it, so now you have to pay," she said.
But Comtois is determined to get his money back, and is working hard to be at the top of his summer school class.
"If I get an A, I'm hoping (my parents) will give me $100 back," he said.
Salem High School offers 16 summer school courses for high school students that also include English and health. Additional courses are offered for middle school and elementary school students. About 180 students are enrolled in those courses this summer.
