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Year Round School

MBDeac08 said:
As a HS teacher, I would prefer the year round schedule. Teaching is not easy and we do get burn out after awhile. Throwing in more breaks would help to alleviate that. Same goes for students. Also, as already mentioned, less time spent relearning previous material is a plus. For at-risk students and schools, year round would also keep many kids out of trouble during the summer and give them some structure to their lives.

One obstacle I have heard concern over is athletics. Most of the people who post here don't see high school football/basketball as a big deal, but reality is these sports are a big deal in many communities and they drive a lot of decision making (mainly football). For many kids, their only ride to school is the bus. The only way they can play sports is because they are already at school. Their only ride home is an after school shuttle that takes athletes home after practice. These shuttles don't run in the summer now. If you go to year round, you will have to run the buses a lot more and pay drivers more for the increased hours. So it becomes a budget issue.

I don't think this a reason to avoid YRS, simply one obstacle I hear from other teachers and coaches.
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WGAF about high school sports. Spend my tax money on teaching them something.
 
I definitely learned more working my Saturday job as a cashier at a grocery store during the school year. I also worked that job fulltime during the summer. I hated every minute of it and it taught me what I didn't want to do in life. To this day, making me work that job is the most valuable lesson my parent have ever taught me.

Then I got a job as a lifeguard after my senior year of high school. That was the most fun job I've ever had.
 
TuffaloDeac10 said:
Out of curiousity, how does training camp work?
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Some schools do run a shuttle now for their players once official practice starts. During off-season summer workouts though, we are limited in the numbers we can have out there doing skill work so it usually become those who have the ability to get them selves there. So no shuttles then. Other schools (ones with money) have lights on their practice fields, so they can go in the evenings when more parents are able to get their kids there.

It varies by community. You will have extremes; some communities will have parents who will drop the kid off and stay and others where a kid tells you they can't practice because mom and dad have to work.
 
HeavyPetter said:
WGAF about high school sports. Spend my tax money on teaching them something.
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Like I said, many on this board don't see them as a big deal. But they are, whether you like it or not. Athletics bring in a lot of money to the schools. Some high schools bring in $10 grand every home game.

And your tax dollars are going to academics. Other than the bare necessities to put on a game, schools raise most of the money themselves for athletics.
 
I'm a little late to the party but as a parent with five years of YRS experience, I love it. My son loves it. Granted, he's never known anything different...but I can tell when he starts getting burnt out on school and it's typically around week 8 (his schedule is 9 weeks on/3 weeks off). In our school system, about 85% of the elementary schools and probably about 35-40% of the middle schools are YR, but none of the high schools are due to the athletics issues noted above.

We are fortunate that our county has a very strong infrastructure of trackout programs, mostly through the Y. It would be a hardship if that weren't the case. The only concern I've had with YR is the summer camp issue. 4thGraderDeac wants to go to basketball camp this summer, but none of the schedules work with his school schedule. We'll all get over that given the benefits of the schedule overall.
 
I've got kids in YRS here in Wake county and have had them there for 6 years. As a parent I think it's great. Works great for vacations. One year we went to the beach after Labor Day. Off Season, still hot. Just this past year we went to Disney World in late September. No crowds.

Wake County only does YRS thru middle school. High School is on the traditional calendar. This will be a problem for us next year when my oldest starts high school. At that time she and her sister will only have Xmas break and about 4 weeks in June off at the same time. Then I can see it being a pain in the ass to go anywhere. There are so many schools here that child care is not an issue, due to all the track out camps etc. that are offered

WCPSS calendar for YRS is here I do think it helps kids retain knowledge and the shorter breaks have kept my stay at home wife from killing either of them.
 
Deacfreak07 said:
Year Round School kills summer camps.
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No it wouldn't. Most camps are only offered for like six weeks anyways. A five-week summer break wouldn't really change anything.
 
MBDeac08 said:
Like I said, many on this board don't see them as a big deal. But they are, whether you like it or not. Athletics bring in a lot of money to the schools. Some high schools bring in $10 grand every home game.

And your tax dollars are going to academics. Other than the bare necessities to put on a game, schools raise most of the money themselves for athletics.
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Sports are an distraction and exclude the vast majority of students at large high schools. Where do you think the money that paid for the land for those playing fields came from? Where does that $10 grand the football team raises go? Back into the athletic programs. Want to impress me with fundraising? Raise money for academic pursuits.
 
JDawg said:
No it wouldn't. Most camps are only offered for like six weeks anyways. A five-week summer break wouldn't really change anything.
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Like hell it wouldn't. If everywhere went YR, maybe. Summer Camps typically run about 10 weeks, and they need to generate enough revenue to fund the whole place in that time frame. Many, if not most, summer camps depend on HS staff. Getting them in and training them in time would be a nightmare. Most camps would need to transition to more track-out programming. This isn't really feasible for camps up north because the winters would be too tough.

My initial comment was specifically about residential summer camps, btw.
 
HeavyPetter said:
Sports are an distraction and exclude the vast majority of students at large high schools. Where do you think the money that paid for the land for those playing fields came from? Where does that $10 grand the football team raises go? Back into the athletic programs. Want to impress me with fundraising? Raise money for academic pursuits.
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I'm not arguing with you about where money comes from and where it should go. I wish more of that money went to academics; I agree with you there. As I said before, other than the bare necessities to put on a game (that includes fields), sports are revenue driven. Your tax dollars (not enough of them, I'll again stress) go towards academics.

I disagree that sports are a distraction and exclude the vast majority of students. That is a pretty broad generalization. Sure, for some students it is a distraction from the real reason they are in school. For others it is an incentive to do well so they can play sports and it might get them into college. As to sports excluding students: in a school of 2000 (large in NC), over half of those students aren't interested in playing sports for the school. And in large schools, there are ample opportunities to participate in sports if one wants to. Maybe you can elaborate on what you mean by "exclude a vast majority of students".
 
Deacfreak07 said:
Like hell it wouldn't. If everywhere went YR, maybe. Summer Camps typically run about 10 weeks, and they need to generate enough revenue to fund the whole place in that time frame. Many, if not most, summer camps depend on HS staff. Getting them in and training them in time would be a nightmare. Most camps would need to transition to more track-out programming. This isn't really feasible for camps up north because the winters would be too tough.

My initial comment was specifically about residential summer camps, btw.
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do kids still go to camps?
 
Deacfreak07 said:
Absolutely.
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as someone that is sensitive to summer camps (worked at one for 5 years), they would have to evolve their model or be left behind if it is determined that YRS provide an educational benefit to society.
 
bmoneydeac said:
as someone that is sensitive to summer camps (worked at one for 5 years), they would have to evolve their model or be left behind if it is determined that YRS provide an educational benefit to society.
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The latter would most likely happen. I tend to agree with you though. Essentially, camps would run more school based programs (overnights, trips, etc).
 
If YRS schedules become more popular, camps and other activities will adjust.
 
I think people are underestimating the important lessons learned by playing sports.
 
norm said:
If YRS schedules become more popular, camps and other activities will adjust.
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I think so too. Once you get people to see past the initial obstacles, it becomes clear that year round learning is much more preferable.

I never did year round in elementary, middle or high, but I had my best grades at Wake when I took summer school classes between soph-jr and jr-sr years. My grad school program was essentially year round with 1-2 summer classes and 2-3 classes during the normal school year. I preferred it to a long summer off to be honest.
 
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