Year around school?

[BernardandMissBianca]

Are you sure that they don't use the AC in the summer? Where do the kids go for ESY? Does the staff work in the building during the summer without the AC on? Here our administrators are on either 11 or 12 month contracts so they are working in the buildings even when the students are not there.

no A/C here. Only in the main office and the library/computer room. Teachers work in their rooms in the summer if they want to but they roast. The only teacher I've seen work the whole summer is the music teacher, the rest stay a week after school gets out to empty the rooms so they can be cleaned and then a week before school gets back to return the rooms to normal and do Professional Development days.

Not sure what ESY means but due to budget cuts we don't even have summer school. When we did it was held in the school library.

At this point we can't even pass the budget enough to put a new roof on even though the whole building leaks, there is no way we could pass to put A/C in and tack on the cost of Electricity.

 

[golfgal]

I am also stumped as to where you live, because we had the COLDEST winter here this winter- we had 15 days or more of 'record setting lows' and weeks where we NEVER saw anything over 0 degrees! My parents live in northern MN. They were warmer than we were most days this winter and we live much further south (not in MN though)

We had more snow this year and blowing snow issues here this year as well

I live in the Twin Cities area and I think our winter was the 2nd or 3rd warmest on record. We had NO SNOW in March, first time that has happened since they started keeping weather records-golf courses were all open by the end of March, usually that doesn't happen until mid-April.

 

[cydswipe]

My daughter went to a year round school for 2 years before we moved. I actually prefer year round, over traditional. I only know about our one year round district and know zilch about "tracking".

School started early early August. Fall break, 3 wks. Christmas Break, 3 wks. Spring break, 3 wks and then school was "out" for the summer in June. I believe summer break was 8 wks.

As far as childcare went, the YMCA staffed daycare during those breaks... Seemed to be a good system for those who needed it. I was a SAHM, so I didn't need to utilize that aspect. Don't know the pros/cons.

We're in the Midwest. Weather can be all over the place. AC was used, and of course, heat in the dead of winter! )

Now, keep in mind, my daughter was just k and 1st grade. She was ready for the break, but then very excited to return 3 wks later.

I wish our district now was year round. Sounds like every year round district runs completely differently. maybe I'm just wishing for the old school....


Enjoyed this thread!

 

[karibritt01]

School started early early August. Fall break, 3 wks. Christmas Break, 3 wks. Spring break, 3 wks and then school was "out" for the summer in June. I believe summer break was 8 wks.

This is like our "modified calendar" schools.

Our school system is huge: 102 elementary, 30 middle, 23 high schools. We operate on traditional, year round and modified schedules. To top off all that, elementary schools operate on 3 different bell schedules, middle and high schools have 2 different bell schedules. Then throw in "Wacky Wednesdays" where the kids get out an hour early each week!

For us Year-Round saves the school system a lot of money because it kept a lot of schools from needing to be built. (Bad for us, because 80% of my husband's job was with the school system building and updating schools.) And our traditional schools are occupied in the summer anyway because of office staff, and the summer maintainence and cleaning.

 

[daughtersrus]

Not sure what ESY means but due to budget cuts we don't even have summer school. When we did it was held in the school library.

.

ESY is Extended School Year. This applies to many (but not all) students that have an IEP (Individual Education Plan).

Edited to add...

It is not the same as "summer school".

 

[NHdisneylover]

I am thinking about this last winter where we had horrible wind advisories EVERY DAY for weeks in a row and adding that to the already 10 below zero, the kids would have either blown away or froze! We live in a very open area where the winds get horrible most winters- the windchill AVERAGED -20 on a regular day. No child should be outside in those conditions. They would get frostbite. That's a normal winter here (usually not as cold, but definately have the wind!). Our school district won't allow the kids to play outside if it's below zero on a school day, which is good. BUT at least there, they have three big gyms they can run in...I think it helps.

Yes, in larger cities there is the option to bring them to museums and go to other educational places- A lot of people don't have that option. I, for example, live in a smaller town with nothing like that available. Yes, there are a lot of activities to do indoors, crafts, projects things like that- but a person gets sick of doing that stuff after a week straight...The kids get very ansy towards the end of C-Mas break no matter HOW MANY indoor activities we've planned.

I'm not saying that it's impossible to entertain them over the winter...nor does it matter that we live in the frozen tundra all winter, BUT IN MY CASE, MY CASE it is much easier to entertain them durring the spring, summer and fall than it is in the winter. I know this from experiance, not just because I have some hunch. I've delt with it.

Yes, that is too cold to be out if it is truly 20 below for days on end you are stuck indoors which is not always fun (oh and we homeschooled in rural New Hampshire so I understand not much to do otherwise. Nearly everywhere has a library you can visit, and yes in the dead of a cold winter even an outing to the grocery store can help). The flip side of this argument is that the kids are stir crazy and hard to cope with and have a very hard time paying attention IN CLASS if they have been cooped up inside the school and home for days on end too. I dreaded those ultra cold weeks when I taught because it was sooooo hard to get anything done. From that perspective, it is good to have the kids spend fewer really cold days at school and instead have them in school when they will be better able to learn because they will have been out in the fresh air running around for part of the day as well.

 

[CandyMandy]

One wonderful potential outcome of all schools systems going to year round schedules (but not having the same vacation breaks) would be making it much more difficult for entities like the airlines and Disney to jack up prices during certain "historically high demand" seasons like summer. Yes, major holidays like Xmas and Easter would still demand a premium, but the days of paying more for other periods when "all kids are out of school" would end - because said seasons wouldn't exist anymore.

 

[castleview]

I'm assuming we're talking about year round in which the school is on for three weeks, off for two or three, on for six weeks, off for two - stuff like that. In that case, I'll entertain the possibility.

 

[golfgal]

People do realize that the reason the school system is set up the way it is not is NOT because it is good "educationally" for the students, right? It is set up that way to accommodate our once agrarian society so kids could work in the farm fields in the summer. Since that is really no longer a necessity for 99% of the country, schools should move to a model that is best suited for learning and a 10/2 schedule would do just that.

 

[declansdad]

People do realize that the reason the school system is set up the way it is not is NOT because it is good "educationally" for the students, right? It is set up that way to accommodate our once agrarian society so kids could work in the farm fields in the summer. Since that is really no longer a necessity for 99% of the country, schools should move to a model that is best suited for learning and a 10/2 schedule would do just that.

The other half of that equation was that the rich families wanted the kids to be at the shore with their mothers for the summer months.

 

[mykidsand_i]

People do realize that the reason the school system is set up the way it is not is NOT because it is good "educationally" for the students, right? It is set up that way to accommodate our once agrarian society so kids could work in the farm fields in the summer. Since that is really no longer a necessity for 99% of the country, schools should move to a model that is best suited for learning and a 10/2 schedule would do just that.

I agree. Although I believe the % of kids who still help out with farming is well over 1%. In our area rural midwest towns still have a lot of kids that are depended on for farm help over the non-school summer months.

Schools should go by the best schedule that needs to be set up so everyone can learn the best way possible...and that 9 weeks on 3 weeks off (or what ever your local school does) sounds like a wonderful option for kids who tend to foget stuff over the summer break.

There are a few people who support year around schooling, simply for the fact that they save money on daycare. Those people make me furious. I was watching a school board meeting online the other night...some of these parents were FIGHTING FOR MORE DAYS of school, FIGHTING FOR LONGER days of school and mad because 'it didn't make sense for them to pay a daycare to watch their kids when they could be at school learning." I was ready to yell at these parents. SCHOOL IS NOT A DAYCARE...These are probably the same idiot parents that send their kids to school NO MATTER HOW SICK they are...