share.triangle.com - Year-round school calendars - Comments

Year rnd wll be gone in ten years to protect those responcible

Visitor — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:59:20 -0400

Wow -- most of you guys are clueless. We have three students in forced year round. Two of them could not get the classes we requested because of year round and how they cannot open another class because of the way teachers are split up and cannot accomadate like a one track school. Think about it people. Use your brain. Can you not understand how each track cannot be as flexible as a "one" track school with their teachers. Not to mention no one wants to buy in our neighborhood because of forced year round. My prediction the experiment will end just like everywhere else in about ten years. Quitely so that nobody can call it a massive failure. You believe the government? I guess you believe there is no inflation too. We have a mess on our hands and year round is just the tip of the iceberg.

Year Around Schools

Louis — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:48:20 -0400

I think if the teachers cannot do their jobs in 9 months of Regular school What gives The school the right to change schedules to a year around school system. I think someone has took our rights away and has decided they need to put more money in the teacher's pocketbooks. I do think that teachers should be paid more if they do their jobs.

year round instead of traditional

Visitor — Wed, 28 May 2008 09:20:32 -0400

My kids have been redistricted to a traditional school. Year round works well for our family and we would rather stay there. How can we get back and override the redistricting? Is there any case for this? Another note, here in Franklin County NC we are under a Federal Mandate to desegregate. This mandate is interfering with our ability to get things done or transfers accepted. I need help. Can anyone offer suggestions or site any rights as parents to appeal and be sent to a year round if that is our choice.... Help please.

something to consider

Visitor — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:28:10 -0400

As a parent, I thought year round schools were a great idea. Until we tried it. We never thought about a teacher being out twice in one year for maternity leave.

the facts on year-round

Visitor — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:45:03 -0400

First, I am not against year round schools. I do think they should be a choice. I am an educator and parent, I think there are many misconceptions on both sides of the argument.

The cost savings of operating on a year round schedule are not necessarily true. The heating, cooling, electrical, etc. are higher for YR schools. Many staff in traditional schools must be 12 month employees rather than 10 - such as specialists, elective teachers, etc. Their salaries are higher costs.

Another issue with YR schools is the teacher burnout. As I mentioned, many positions become 12 month. I know many people feel that teachers take a long vacation each summer, but that is not true. They are working (for free), taking classes, and more. They cannot do these things in the working months. Teachers cannot even take vacation without pay deductions during the school year. Teachers also re-charge mentally. This is incredibly important. More teachers are leaving the profession every year and this will only push more out of teaching. Teaching is one of the most mentally draining jobs there is. Nobody wants unprepared or unstable teachers in the classroom.

High Schools cannot go on a multi-track schedule. They may change calendars, but it is impossible to have teachers for every subject available for every track. This is already a problem in YR middle schools. Spanish or a certain math class is only availalbe on certain tracks. This doesn't provide equal education to all.

WCPSS's statistics on who applied for traditional schools is very misleading. I used to think the same way when I heard only so many applied. The problem is that applications are not for the traditional calendar school of choice. It is pre-determined. Many famlilies would prefer traditional, but not at a school 15 miles away so they don't apply. My question is with so many YR schools that are not at capacity, why are any applications for YR turned down?

Everyone, please do the research. I don't think many families are completely against YR schools. They are against they way WCPSS disregards parental input in their plan to have no community schools.

Do your homework

vwclemson — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:04:11 -0400

We loved Wake County's YR school system for our daughter (now a college sophomore), but the demographics have changed drastically in Wake county since we last lived there in 2004. I always wonder where my tax money goes, and funding for schools is a big part of the issue now facing Wake County residents of school-age children. I was interested to read the following WCPSS fiscal plan:

http://www.wcpss.net/budget/2008-09-spss/spss--2008-09.pdf

Year Round Schools

NCPanamanian — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:07:53 -0400

I love Year-Round Schools, my teenage children (2) went to YR from Kindergarten. I worked at their school as well. However, it was our choice to go there. This is the beginning of the end of our FREEDOMS. Watch the School Board dictate what your kids can and cannot do. They already dictate what is taught, no matter if is true or not. Wait a minute, that is "An Inconvenient Truth" LET THE PARENTS DECIDE!!

Year Round Schools

Visitor — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:18:04 -0400

I don't feel that it is fair for my 8 year old to be forced to go to year round school next year. I tried it this year and i didn't like it. Not only was her school ridiculously far away, She didn't like it...and i was forced to pay for childcare while she was tracked out because she is too young to be at home alone. I don't know what i'm going to do if they force her to go again next year.

Year round schools

Visitor — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:33:06 -0400

The problematic word here has always been "mandatory". WCPSS has traditionally operated in a high-handed autocratic manner when it comes to doing what it deems best for OUR children. It seems that they have forgotten who they really work for. When they first came up with this idea, they could have saved themselves lots of time, trouble and money if they had ASKED first who would want to be in year-round schools. Effective public relations, persuasive advertising, and testimonials about the benefits of year-round schools would have been great. But, as typical, these people know what's best for everyone else.

BTW I'm a teacher and well familiar with how the school systm operates.

Year Round Schools

Visitor — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:23:47 -0400

I agree with you 100%. I do not have children right now but I can tell you when I do have children that are of the age to go to school I will be looking for a year round school system. I like the idea of my children going the way of the year round much better then a traditional school. First they are more apt to remember what they have learned because of shorter breaks, you can go on vacation and not just during "summer vacation" and the kids don't get bored with 3 months of school off instead they get nice short little breaks and then before they really have a chance to get really bored (or what they consider bored) they are back at school. I have also heard people talking about child care during the weeks the children are out of school but just like the summertime when parents work they have to find childcare and most schools now have some kind of school programs for children while their parents are at work. I guess I just don't understand why the negative feedback from the Traditional school lovers, all I've heard is they hate it but I have't heard any reasons why.

Not Liking Forced YR

Visitor — Tue, 06 May 2008 10:15:27 -0400

I am currently living the year round elementary schedule, and the traditional with my high schooler. For my family it just doesnt work! I was told that track out is the equivelant to summer vacation time. But with a traditional student, i never get a break! When one is out, the other is in. When my youngest tracks out in July, my oldest is required to attend high school tryouts for fall sports or risk not making the team, so again, we get no breaks together.
My youngest hates year round, and has melt downs whenever her sibling has off and she doesn't. Hard to explain it to her at the time.
As for school space, our YR school has many empty classrooms and will be 300+ students under capacity next year. The school is not being used, and money is being wasted with keeping the school open all year.
Finally, I will say that year round can be great for families who WANT it. When kids are little, you can enjoy the benefits of vacationing at various times thoughout the year. But wait until you are forced into different schedules, and you will see how hard this is on some families.

Cheaper = better

Visitor — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:56:04 -0400

I have seen figures showing year round schools are cheaper as a whole.

If true, then it follows that a system with the same amount of tax money will give students a better education using year-round schools.

Are the 9-month advocates SO against a better education for our children? Or do they just want to raise taxes so they get their way?

Selfish.

When will the County come up

Visitor — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:50:40 -0400

When will the County come up with viable alternatives for Track Out Camps that are affordable? I registered my daughter at Leesville Middle School's Track Out Camp thru the City of Raleigh and they cancelled it for the month of August. Of course my second and third choices were already filled up by the time the school let Raleigh City Parks know this information. There are not enough Track Out camps offered in the county to accommodate year-round schools!

What's the fuss?

Visitor — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:12:12 -0400

I have a daughter who will be in second grade next year and currently attends a traditional elementary school. I simply cannot understand what it is about year-round schedules that gets some people so wrapped around the axle. Years ago, when the idea was new and daycares had not yet adapted by offering compatible programs, the resistance made sense. But this is no longer the case. The year-round schedule is a clever way to fill schools to 125% of capacity without the cost of trailers or the negative effects of overcrowding. With our school enrollment skyrocketing with no end in sight, this is no small consideration. So why are people so afraid? It can't be that it disrupts traditional family vacations. VERY few people are in a position to go on vacation for more than three weeks, and all four tracks track out at SOME point during the summer, and off-season vacations are sometimes even better (and cheaper). And does anybody remember how hard it was to get back into the swing of things after three months of down time?

Year Round Schools

Visitor — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 09:48:25 -0400

I definately think that new schools need to continue to be opened as year-round. In addition to being able to house more students, it is apparently what most families want. According to WCPSS, only 2329 applications for transfers from year-round were received and they were able to place all of those, but 3773 applications for transfers to year-round were received. They were not even able to place 50% of those applicants - the over 1800 applicants thet were turned down could fill 2 or 3 new schools! By the way, if they created 2329 openings in year-round schools by granting transfers to 100% of those who requested them, shouldn't they have been able to place 2329 year-round applicants into those vacant spots instead of the less that 1800 they did????

The media tends to pick up on the opinions of the few very vocal people who do not want their children to attend year-round school and portray that the community is opposed to mandatory year-round, but the numbers present a different picture.

Year-round school calendars

mwilliam — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:45:06 -0500

What do you think about year-round schools situation?