Before you make your decision...

Please do some research. Talk to others in the communities around us and find out what the like about their current school year calendar, but to be fair, find out what they DON'T like about it.

Consider looking through this site: www.ascd.org

There you will find many good resources on research-based literature that may help you to decide which option you think is best for you and for our children.

What about other schools around here?

GOOD QUESTION!

Here is the comparison that the Moline School District proposed. You will notice that BLUE is the traditional schedule, and GREEN is the balanced schedule, PURPLE would be vacation/intersession time.

What are the characteristics of both... good or bad?

Traditional

- “If it isn’t broke…”

- The three main reasons people go into teaching: JUNE, JULY, AUGUST

- Staff have greater opportunity to continue their education during summer

- New York State Board of Regents study concluded that disadvantaged students have 27% more summer learning loss than their more affluent classmates

- Time is built in for summer sport, band, and activity camps; student (and even staff) employment;






Balanced-

- Shortened summer vacation/intersessions

- School Days/Intersessions – 45/10, 45/15,
60/20, 90/30

- Allow time for remediation, tutoring, enrichment during intersessions instead of summer school

- Necessitate facility upgrades (air conditioning)

- Staff and student burnout may be averted with more frequent, longer breaks

- More flexible opportunity for off-peak family vacation and travel

What is the proposed change?

The proposed change is to begin the start date for the school year a little sooner, and push back the end date of the school year further. *NOTICE* This will not make the school year longer, it will simply spread out the days throughout more of the school year, and lengthen breaks between quarters.

Here is what the pie chart of our attendance would look like if we adopted the NAYRE-recommended plan:

What is the current calendar?

The current calendar that the school operates on is a modified verions of what was once known as the "agrarian" calendar. It was originally created to allow school-aged children a great deal of time off in the summer time to work on the family farm.

Kids start the school year somewhere around labor day, or late in the harvest season and are in school all fall, winter, and spring. They, of course have major holidays off as well as weekends.

Here is a pie chart that kind of demonstrates what the traditional calendar looks like (from the National Association for Year-Round Education).