When Jaida Martin’s mom asked her to do summer school, she locked herself up in her room and refused, until she reluctantly signed up. It ended up being one of the best decisions she made.

“You’d think that taking summer school would waste your summer but I’m so glad I did it,” Jaida Martin, sophomore, said. “I took [summer school] so that I would have more room in my schedule for next year, because I’m taking an extra science class and choir too,”

There are many reasons why Martin was so glad, and according to her “you wouldn’t even think of a lot of them until you do it.”

“I liked how the environment was chill and nothing seemed super forced or too rushed,” Martin, who took Drivers Ed, said. “[I] would definitely recommend it because it’s a good way to get some more classes in and earn credits to graduate, plus taking summer school opens up your schedule so that you can take more classes you have an interest in. You’ll meet new friends and all that too, I promise.”

When it comes to summer school however, not all that glitters is gold, according to Jora Pugliese, sophomore who has also taken summer school.

“Summer school is very fast paced. Because you are learning so much material in a short period of time, there is a lot of homework and the school days are long,” Pugliese said. “Each day is basically a week of material, so if you miss a day it’s really hard to catch up.”

Despite its challenges, Pugliese, who took Honors Bio and Honors Science in Society, says that she is happy that she has taken summer school twice so far.

“It allowed me to take a study hall during the school year and I had a less stressful school year because of [summer school], Pugliese said. “The online classes are good too because you can do your work any time of the day and you don’t have to wake up early to go to school. You can work from anywhere, so it’s really worth it.”