Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Great, thanks for all of the info everyone! Francois - It seems like the YR school is because of a problem with overcrowding so I didn't know how soon or if a change would be coming. Good to know that there may be changes on the horizon, just for planning's sake. YR school does sound like it has its benefits though. I would certainly enjoy the opportunity to travel / take time off during months other than the summer.
I agree with that. Although, it did get me wondering about how it works if you teach. Do you teach throughout the entire year or do follow the same schedule all the time? I taught in a year round school but we only had one track. I used to love cruising in October..
Teachers are on the same schedule as their students - 9 weeks on; 3 weeks off. Just like teachers have a few workdays over the summer, they have a couple of workdays at the beginning and/or end of each track out, but overall they have the same breaks as the kids.
It's trickier for non-classroom teachers like elementary art, pe, music and library. Honestly I'm not sure how it works for them.
This will be the sixth year for my son on a year-round schedule. We've never had a problem finding camps for him. As mentioned earlier, Durham has three elementary schools and one middle school on the year-round schedule and all of them seem to be good schools [they all scored well on the recent set of testing].
My child is on track one and has been in two different schools and it hasn't seemed that clear cut. She definitely hasn't been without specials for 3 week stretches. I'm not arguing; I really don't know how it works and know specials and how they're handled varies by school as well. I just don't want people new to the area to think they have to be on track 4 to get full time access to art, music, pe etc. That hasn't been the case at our school. I'm wondering if the specials teachers are contracted to work more days than classroom teachers?
year round schools are great im my first hand as a parent. kids both see the end of a quarter and work better for a shorter period, and then don't lose their momentum over a long summer break
the only complaints you'll hear are from inconvenienced parents who can't fit their vacations around it, but for kids it's mcuh better educationally, if that matters
My child is on track one and has been in two different schools and it hasn't seemed that clear cut. She definitely hasn't been without specials for 3 week stretches. I'm not arguing; I really don't know how it works and know specials and how they're handled varies by school as well. I just don't want people new to the area to think they have to be on track 4 to get full time access to art, music, pe etc. That hasn't been the case at our school. I'm wondering if the specials teachers are contracted to work more days than classroom teachers?
Each principal decides how to allocate the $ for non-essentials- that's why some schools have some things that others can't because $ has to be allocated to a certain program, or, a decision is made for one thing rather than another.
Most schools cannot afford more than the 1 teacher for music or art, for example. Those teachers usually choose to be track 4, but sometimes are track 1. Sometimes there is $ for a sub, sometimes not.
At our year-round, my kids definitely were without specials when the specials teachers were tracked out. In addition, for concerts, since they were track 1, they would go to school for practices over track out since concerts coincided with track 4...
Anecdotally, our experience was not unique, but as you point out, it varies from school to school.
year round schools are great im my first hand as a parent. kids both see the end of a quarter and work better for a shorter period, and then don't lose their momentum over a long summer break
the only complaints you'll hear are from inconvenienced parents who can't fit their vacations around it, but for kids it's mcuh better educationally, if that matters
... well... if you have a high schooler it gets complicated since there is no year round hs.
Another factor is that when you consider the climate here, you see the wisdom in being inside in school, in the A/C in August, and having a break in September or October when the kdis can do so much more on vacation.
Bingo! And there you have it. Unfortunately, life *is* inconvenient sometimes, but there's a large crop parents suffering from Suburban Entitlement Complex who expect the world to adapt to their every need and whim.
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