Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 14, 1995 TAG: 9508140111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Brooke Higgs, a Northside High School junior, says students shouldn't be asked to sacrifice their summer vacations and jobs for school.
"Everybody looks forward to the summer," she said. "If you want to work the whole summer to save money and buy a car, you can."
If the county rearranges the school calendar as a study committee has recommended, students couldn't make much money during a short vacation, she said.
Higgs has a summer job at a restaurant in Tanglewood Mall. She doesn't think it would be fair to force students to go to school during the summer.
Nearly a dozen county students working or shopping in the mall agreed with her.
Jeff Owens, who works at a snack shop, said the idea is bad. Many students look forward to summer jobs, he said.
Owens said the proposal won't affect him because he will be a senior at Cave Spring High School this year and will graduate before it could be implemented.
Only one student, Amanda Dwier, was receptive to the proposed calendar change, which would provide several shorter breaks throughout the school year.
"It would be interesting to try it for a year and see how it goes," said Dwier, a sophomore at Cave Spring High.
"It would be a nice change. Summer is too long and gets boring after the first month."
The study panel said that students would learn more with a shorter summer break and additional shorter breaks throughout the year. The so-called extended school calendar would distribute the 180 school days over 12 months.
Under one option, students would go to school for nine weeks and be off for three weeks. Under another, they would attend classes for 12 weeks and be out of school for four weeks.
Nickie Evenson, a parent, said she believes the extended school calendar would provide families with more vacation opportunities during the year. If families like to ski, they would have the time to do that during the winter when their children were on a break, she said.
Evenson said the revised schedule would also enable schools to provide remedial help immediately to students needing it. During the three or four weeks when students would not be scheduled to be in school, remedial and enrichment programs probably would be offered on an optional basis.
"I like the idea. I have been in favor of it since I heard about it," Evenson said. But some parents have mixed emotions , she said.
"Anytime something new is proposed, some people are apprehensive and want to see what it's all about," she said.
Evelyn Ball, a leader in the Parent Teacher Association, said she has found that many parents are willing to consider the idea.
It would help reduce baby-sitting problems for working parents with children in elementary schools during the summer, she said. Now they must find someone to take care of the children for 2 1/2 months. If the school calendar were changed, it probably would be easier to find someone to care for the children for shorter breaks, she said.
School Board member Thomas Leggette, also a parent, said there seems to be strong support for the concept in the Hidden Valley Junior High School PTA.
The PTA's board has endorsed the committee's recommendation that individual schools be encouraged and permitted to develop a plan for an extended calendar. The staff and parents at each school should decide whether they want to make the change, the committee said.
Leggette said some Hidden Valley parents were concerned about would happen if they had children in two schools and one chose to revise its schedule and the other didn't. He said this problem could be solved if the school making the change offered an option of an extended or traditional schedule.
David Blevins, chairman of the panel that presented its recommendation to the School Board, said some North Carolina school systems offer a dual track system with an extended and traditional calendar offered to students in each school.
If schools in Roanoke County offered an option, there probably would be stronger support for the change, Blevins said.
Judy Deyerle, president of the Roanoke County Education Association, said she supports the committee's recommendation and believes that schools should be permitted to rearrange their schedules.
Deyerle said she believes that most teachers support the proposal and would be willing to give it a try.
Buena Vista's is the only school system in Virginia with a year-round school program, but it differs from the Roanoke County proposal.
Buena Vista operates on a quarter system for high school students that provides them the option of attending school for 180 or 218 days a year. There are several short vacations during the school year.
Buena Vista's program, one of the first in the nation, began two decades ago. It has increased the number of students going to college and reduced the dropout rate, Superintendent James Bradford said.
Buena Vista has a traditional schedule for kindergarten through the eighth grade, but it is studying a possible extended calendar for them.
If Roanoke County schools opted for a revised schedule, they would have to get permission from the state Board of Education to open schools before Labor Day, according to Thomas Elliott, the state's chief of compliance. Buena Vista has a waiver from the Labor Day opening law, he said.
by CNB