Grayslake North is offering summer school once again this year, with a lot of key differences than years prior due to the pandemic. It will feature newer courses and also some courses staying over Zoom.

“We’ve done it every summer and since the pandemic started. It’s a little different each year, so when the pandemic first started, we were 100 percent remote. Last year we had a couple of groups coming in for a class while some were remote. This summer we’re going to be almost back fully in person, and we are going to have a couple of classes that we’re going to choose to do remote because we thought remote actually worked pretty well for summer school because some students were able to go on vacation still and still Zoom into class and achieve what they wanted to achieve during class,” said summer school principal Rob Nicolleti.

This summer will also be the first time that the summer school registration fee, as well as the bus fee, are going to be waived by the school, opening up a lot of possibilities for any student who is interested in joining the summer school program to be able to participate and achieve what it is they would like to do.

“We’re back mostly in person this year, and because of a COVID related federal grant that’s supposed to help address learning loss, we’re able to offer summer school for free this year. Typically there is a $195 tuition fee per semester to take summer school, and this year tuition is waived. And there is also no cost this year to take the bus. Typically there is a $25 fee per semester to take the bus. That fee is waived this year too,” said associate superintendent for teaching, learning and innovation Dr. Tracey Landry.

Mrs. Busse is also going to be running a course called Engineering a Sustainable Future again this summer, which is an agriculture-oriented course that offers much flexibility for students but also hands-on opportunities to learn.

“So this is the third summer I’m running that course, and it’s actually based on agriculture, so students learn everything from planting seeds, planting plants, how to till the soil, harvesting, composting, and it’s a lot of hands-on work, and they’ll work here at North but also at the farm,” said science teacher Nathania Busse.

This class will also be very flexible for students as it will not be like a traditional classroom class, so students will be able to do the work on their own time as well as still having time to do their extracurricular activities, giving everyone a chance to participate.

“We won’t meet every day. It’s actually really flexible. We have an in-person meeting every week throughout the summer, and that takes place at Prairie Crossing Farm from 3:00-6:00 p.m. this year, and all the other stuff is blended on your own time, so it’s really good for people who have jobs, do summer camp, or sports,” Busse said.

For any students who are interested in registering for summer school or at least want to take a look at the courses being offered, they can do it all online.

“All you have to do is go to our D127 website, and we have a link to our summer school website on there and it has a description of all our courses and students can register that way,” Nicolleti said.