Samo summer school program to be altered this year

Camille De BeusStaff WriterThis summer, a select few classes will be offered for free to students as part of the Ed Ahead program, instead of the array offered  last year by the Santa Monica Education Foundation (SMEF) for $595 per class.Parent Mercedes Asaadi is pleased that Ed Ahead is now being run through the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD).“I think that it is a great thing that the summer classes are now free and through the district,” Asaadi said. “Since students in this district are in a public school, which is free, classes over the summer should be provided for free as well. Monetary status should not prevent anyone from learning, especially these students who are striving for a better education by getting ahead.”According to Executive Director of SMEF Linda Gross, Ed Ahead will this year by offered by SMMUSD.“This year [SMMUSD] is going to run all of the summer programs,” Executive Director of the Education Foundation Linda Gross said. “[SMEF] is not running the same Ed Ahead program it has run for the last three years.”However, Gross said that Assistant Superintendent Terry Deloria developed a summer program that will be available to students this year.“The district is going to do their own version of Ed Ahead,” Gross said. “They are going to offer some ‘get ahead’ classes for students.”On Feb. 20, Principal Laurel Fretz sent out an email to all parents to clear up any rumors about summer classes at Samo this year.“Although initially we were not going to offer Ed Ahead courses over the summer, we have just been informed that we will be offering a few select classes,” Fretz said.According to Fretz’s email, in order to sign up for classes, students need to get signatures from their adviser before they submit the contract  and agreement for summer school. Acceptance will be on a first come, first served basis.“All contracts [and] agreements must be turned in to the S-House office to be time-stamped,” Fretz said. “Applications will only be accepted until June 7, 2013 at 4 p.m.. Courses will be considered full at 36. Letters of acceptance will be sent to students the week of June 10, 2013.”The four courses being offered through EASS this year are U.S. History, World History, Ceramics and Biology. Biology will be open to incoming freshmen.Dorothy Debiasse (’15) predicts the change will cause confusion.“I think people are still going to go to the classes at Santa Monica College and other places possible, but I don’t think it will be as successful as having Ed Ahead over the summer,” Debiasse said.However, Greg Melick (’15) doesn’t think this change will make a huge difference for those planning on taking summer school.“I don’t think the switch will affect anything at all,” Melick said. “The Ed Ahead classes were already taught by teachers at Samo, so now that it’s run through the district, I don’t see how there would be a change.”cdebeus@thesamohi.com