Brennan Danlasky logged onto his computer the evening of March 5 to sign up for a six-week, U.S. history summer school course. The Mira Costa sophomore hoped to fulfill his junior year social studies requirement so he’d have a free period in his class schedule the following year to take music theory.
“I’d rather not take history during the year, it’s not of particular interest to me,” said Danlasky, an aspiring genetic engineer. “I’d rather take other courses that I do enjoy, like AP biology.”
Soon after, he found out he didn’t get into the class – too many students enrolled before him, leaving him number 46 on the waitlist.
“It’s kind of bumming because I’ve been waiting all year, anticipating signing up,” he said. “I just wish they could make more room for more people.”
The Manhattan Beach Athletic Foundation offers more than 20 high school classes during the two summer school semesters. Nearly half of the classes are completely full, representing a growing demand among Costa students for additional summer school courses.
Most of the full classes are required subjects – history, health, math and science – that students hope to get out of the way over the summer to free their schedules for electives, sports or advanced placement classes that are of interest to them.
Danlasky figured that if he took history over the summer, he’d be able to not only take a music theory class, but also have more time to take heavy-workload courses like AP biology and AP chemistry during the academic year.
The foundation has been providing summer school for nearly a decade – last summer, 1,400 kids enrolled.
“This year’s going to be our biggest year,” said Gary Wayland, president of the athletic foundation. Each class can hold about 30 students, who each must shell out $250 for a one-semester course, and $500 for a two-semester course. The profits are later funneled back to the school district.
Most summer school enrollees are Costa students – the school’s total enrollment during the academic year is around 2,300.
“Many kids are (taking summer school) in an effort to clean their schedules up,” Wayland said. “Kids these days are taking band and MUN and journalism and athletics and economics, a variety of things; they often use summer in an effort to make the regular year work.”
Among the most popular classes are economics, government and health. More than 120 kids currently sit on the wait list for these classes, Wayland said. Enrollment opened at 6 a.m. on March 5, and within a couple hours, all three of those classes were booked.
“Of course I got up at 6 a.m. and did it right when it opened,” said parent Shara Montana. She was able to enroll her son Ethan, an incoming freshman, in geometry. “He wanted to get ahead in his math,” she said.
Montana’s other son, Tate, an incoming sophomore, wasn’t sure of his schedule at enrollment time. A week after the enrollment opened, he tried to sign up for modern world history and is now fourth on the wait list.
Tate hoped to take history over the summer to avoid a zero period, Montana said. Between participating in Model United Nations and playing sports – football in the fall and track in the spring – Tate’s school days begin at 8 a.m. and often run past 5 p.m. “Zero period would be too much,” Montana said. Zero period begins at 7 a.m. “And every kid that does sports is in the same boat.”
While the foundation has been adding different courses throughout the past few summers, like creative writing, how to write a college essay, and journalism, adding too many sections of one class could throw off the need for the classes during the school year. “We’re constrained by the school district about how many of anything we can offer,” Wayland said.
Wayland said he could easily fill 20 sections of health. “If I did that, it would mess up the school district’s schedule for the year – there wouldn’t be a need for a teacher,” he said. “There wouldn’t be the same demand for the year, and that doesn’t work for the district.”
