Year-round school. Good idea?
The Festus School District is considering joining a small number of public school districts throughout the region that hold school year-round. In today’s story, Festus District grapples with idea of year-round schooling, we learn that a committee is meeting in the Jefferson County district to study the issue, they say, to help solve overcrowding.
Francis Howell district elementary schools in St. Charles County have been in year-round sessions for many years, and parents there seem to like it.
“It’s become such a part of our school community and culture; it’s part of who we are,” said Stacey King, principal of Central Elementary in the Francis Howell district.
Some charter schools operate on a year-round basis too.
Across the nation, as well has here, districts consider the schedule change to either solve overcrowding, or to enhance the learning experience.
Some say that year-round schooling is a better use of resources, while others against the proposal like the downtime during the summer to conduct building and plant maintenance.
Teachers and students have become accustomed to nine weeks of classes followed by three-week breaks and enjoy the fact that the next break is never far away.
So, is it really better for students to stay in school year round, with two or three week breaks in-between sessions? A number of educators like the plan because students will be on a continuous learning cycle and be less apt to “forget” what they learned after a long three-month vacation.
I don’t see anything wrong with year round school. I would imagine it will cause some initial problems, but Festus will get used to it. Festus is an excellent school district with fine teachers and staff. I do wonder about those families whose children are scheduled for different tracks. How will they manage child care, vacations and other family events? I think the plan should be put up for another vote. It failed by only a few votes last time. A good turnout at the November election could put it over the top.
When was the last time the education process has been dramatically changed in this country? I agree year round schooling is better. Think about the 3 month break. When school does start up again teachers have to spend time teaching the info that the kids have forgotten for 3 months. So, now the school year in learning new info is less. And, I live in the country, so I don’t think it’s that essential for us to be out for 3 months.
Terrific, the schools will have the WHOLE year to poorly teach our children. Our educators, through the guidance of the NEA, have worked at making sure math, reading, and science basics have taken a back seat to politically correct mantras. Our children are not learning due to their 9 months of school, they are not learning because teachers aren’t teaching well and parents use the schools for baby-sitting. Here are the fixes:
-Phonics-based teaching
-Repetition
-Drop outcome based teaching
-Concentrate on the basics
-Keep Recess
-Pay Teacher bonuses for high-achieving students
-Keep summers…kids need to work summer jobs
-Do more audits to find out why districts pay $10,000+ per student
-Figure out a way to involve parents more..probably the toughest thing to fix.
This sounds really simple..doesn’t it? In the 1970’s, the NEA pushed whole language and outcome-based education. They also started 3-2 classes, combining three classrooms for every two teachers. Both programs failed our children miserably and it has taken 30+ years to figure this out in some school districts…but there are many to go.
Also, “Suzy has two mommies”, sex education to 3rd graders, and teaching that Columbus was a mass-killer do little to help our children grow.
So, concentrate on teaching our children during the 9 months you have them and let them be kids the other three months.
One other problem might be that teachers often get summer jobs at which they make quite a bit more money than they do teaching. We have to step up to the plate and pay these people more.
I do like the idea of year-round schooling. I think the September-May systems is antiquated. If you are trying to solve over-crowding then the system would have to be cyclic and school would truly be in all year, but if over-crowding isn’t the issue, then each district should have all it’s schools on the same schedule with 6 weeks off in the summer and the other 6 weeks added throughout the year (someone else mentioned this above). I would support this wholeheartedly in my district.
Let’s make sure to do this in the city of St Louis, where there is no air conditioning…
JohnH, Unfortunately there was no internet 20 years ago, so we could not post this in any forum!!
All of the reasons that people are coming up with against this plan can be worked around. When I started teaching I made $9600.00 a year and got paid once a month. A summer job didn’t make me enough money to get by. I had to work every evening and on Saturdays. Summers were nice because I only worked half as much.
On continued education. Once you have your masters, most hours are taken to advance on the salary schedule. They are offered by most universities as extension classes at venues such as local high schools. They are always evening classes. Most masters programs are available locally. There is not much need to travel to continue your education.
I still say that the required time to close and re-open school is wasted time for teachers and students. Also, the NEA hasn’t got the power to make any district do anything they don’t want to.
This article doesn’t explain a few things. Specifically, which schools are considering this plan? Since I’m not too familiar with the Fenton area I would like to know the name(s) of the school(s). How would year round schools help overcrowding? Do these schools have air conditioning? How will teachers be able to continue their educations? Many of the teachers take summer classes, as this is one of the ways they can get higher salaries. Anyone from the Fenton area out there who can answer?
BTW way I otally agree with a previous comment on whole language vs phonics. Whole language turned out to be a disaster - just aske my 18 yr old daughter who still can’t spell as well as her 13- yr old brother (who was taught phonetically.)
Our children attend school in Francis Howell School District and we absolutely love the year round schedule for elementary schools. We just wish middle and high schools were on the same schedule. The students still get a pretty long break in the summer. Our kids are off between June 2 and July 17. That is long enough. They get a 3 week break in both fall and spring and 2 weeks over the Christmas break. One thing we love is being able to go on vacation in late September / early October. Hotel rates are much cheaper at that time. Crowds are much smaller. Weather is still good for most destinations. But the biggest benefit is that the kids don’t get burned out over the traditional 9 month schedule.
Actually johnh invented the internet more than 50 years ago be he was too busy to implement it…then Al Gore stole the idea from him.
We have a tremendous investment in physical plant and materials (building, books, computers, etc) that sit idle 50% of the time. We have students that sit idle 50% (some even more) of the time. And we have valuable profession educators whose skills and knowledge we should make better use of.
Year round schools make sense.