Sometimes students need extra help with their coursework.

In the Oak Harbor School District, it’s getting easier to get that help.

“As a district, we’ve tried to offer more opportunities for kids outside of the school day,” said Assistant Superintendent Steve King, “whether that be through tutoring or other activities.”

Peer tutoring is proving to be especially popular.

National Honor Society students at Oak Harbor High School are required to spend a certain amount of time tutoring. Though it’s mandatory, they say they enjoy helping their peers.

“It makes you feel good,” said Lauren Aspery, a National Honor Society student. “Like you’re actually helping someone.”

Those students tutor not only their fellow high school students, but also travel to the middle schools to help those students with any work they’re struggling with.

“National Honor Society students who come will help students with any of the work they need,” said North Whidbey Middle School Principal Bill Weinsheimer.

Weinsheimer said the most common subjects covered in tutoring are the core subjects, like math, English, science and social studies. However, even if the student doesn’t want help from high schoolers in other subjects, help is available through teachers after school.

Weinsheimer said that it’s not uncommon for art, band or choir students to stay after school to get help from teachers.

The same goes for the high school, according to Principal Dwight Lundstrom. He said the career and technical teachers stay after school and open their labs to students.

“That’s especially helpful for kids who really have a passion,” Lundstrom said.

Because of the increased availability, students are “able to extend their learning and do some pretty amazing extra stuff when they really have a passion for a subject,” he said.

It’s still early in the 2014-15 school year, so students taking advantage of the increased tutoring programs are few at the moment, but Weinsheimer said that, starting in October, “students will start to struggle a little bit,” and they’ll be taking advantage of the offered help more.

It helps that students know early on where the help is if they need it.

“I think the biggest result is just the relational piece,” Lundstrom said, “that kids know we’re here to help.

“Learning is about effort and about ‘keep trying until you understand it,’ and so I think it just helps with our culture.”

For honor student Patricia Sablan, who has spent time tutoring in the middle schools, the help she provides also gives her a good refresher for past studies.

“It’s nice to have a little review of what the transformation of what math you’ve gone through,” Sablan said.

Tutoring students has shown her the hard work many people don’t get a chance to see, she said.

“You don’t really notice how people struggle.”

Because she has noticed, and can help struggling students, Sablan said she gets a good feeling from tutoring.

Though there is no set schedule for the Honor Society students visiting the middle schools, and won’t be until early October, at the high school there are three weekly tutoring sessions.

Those are held 2:20-3:20 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in Denise May’s classroom.

At the middle schools, if a student is unable to make it to a tutoring session with Honor Society students, teachers are available to help.