ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 10, 1996 TAG: 9612100082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Some students at Roanoke County's Hidden Valley Junior High School might have a short vacation next summer.
They'll get out of school June 10 - and could return to classes by July 1.
Hidden Valley is expected to become the first school in the Roanoke Valley to offer a year-round school option.
Students could trade their traditional long summer vacation for shorter breaks throughout the year.
School officials have developed a so-called 45-15 plan that calls for students to attend school for nine weeks (45 days) and be off three weeks. The pattern would start in July and continue throughout the year.
Students would have 180 days of class, the same as in the traditional school calendar.
Principal David Blevins said a survey shows that enough students apparently are interested in the year-round option to make it feasible. Parental support for the option has been strong at Hidden Valley.
Blevins was chairman of a county committee that studied the year-round option and recommended last year that schools be allowed to offer it.
The traditional schedule, with classes beginning in late August and ending in June, would continue to be offered at Hidden Valley. The year-round schedule would be voluntary.
Blevins said the school soon will ask the School Board for permission to use the year-round plan, starting next year. School officials need to get approval soon because student registration for the next school year begins in February, he said.
Blevins said the plan would fit into the school system's policy of issuing grades for each nine weeks of classes.
The study committee headed by Blevins said a year-round schedule could boost academic achievement, improve attendance, reduce student and teacher burnout and provide remedial help sooner for students needing it.
Advocates of year-round school also say it reduces discipline problems, because the frequent three-week breaks enable students to relax and recover from the pressure that builds up when they are in school. For example, the number of suspensions and expulsions at a Baltimore elementary school decreased after it switched to a year-round plan.
When the Roanoke County committee's report on the extended school year was released, Blevins said the three-month summer break is a relic from an era when the majority of families were involved in agriculture.
"No one believes the long summer break is good for student learning," he said. "Nearly every industrialized nation in the world follows a much different schedule."
The study panel said it didn't foresee major logistical problems if some county schools opted for a year-round plan while others retained the traditional schedule.
There would be separate classes for Hidden Valley students in the year-round schedule. Blevins said the county would provide bus transportation for students who opted for the year-round plan on the same basis as those who choose the traditional schedule.
The year-round option might increase costs, but this won't be known until after students have registered, he said.
Nationwide, nearly 2,300 schools with 1.6 million students operate on a year-round schedule. More than half of those schools are in California and Texas, followed by Florida.
Buena Vista has been on a year-round plan for more than two decades, but only a few schools in Virginia offer the option.
The year-round concept took root in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a way to relieve overcrowding without building more schools. By staggering short breaks throughout the year, schools could have one-fourth or one-third of their students on vacation all the time.
Superintendent Deanna Gordon has recommended county schools be allowed to offer the year-round option on an individual basis. She said it would not be forced on any school. "It's something for the schools and communities to decide."
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart: Pros and cons of year-round school. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB