Should the school year be LONGER or SHORTER? (degrees, salary, costs)
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Would you prefer the (K-12) school year to be longer or shorter?
Right now in MN the school year usually begins after Labor Day in early September and lasts until early June with two big breaks.
In alternative scenario #1, the school year would be cut by almost 2 months. It would start during the Monday of the last week of September and go through early May. All breaks would be intact. This would have the advantage of more free time for both students and teachers, and would allow the state to better balance the budget by cutting education funding and teacher salaries.
In alternative scenario #2, the school year would be extended to begin in the second week of August and get out the last week of June. This is actually how it is in Mexico and many European countries. The break schedule would be kept intact. Possible advantages of this plan would be better knowledge and skill retention, less time to get in trouble, and better pay for teachers.
Definitely, longer. Even the state admits I need 36 full weeks to teach all of my standards and that doesn't allow for reviewing material students should already know before setting foot in my classroom at the beginning of the year.
Well, we already are scheduled to go until June 19 and we start the day after Labor Day. So, if we started the second week of August and finished at the end of June, it would basically be adding an extra month. I could do that, but the biggest obstacle would be cost to the system.
Most school are around 180days, I would like to see a 210day , Gives a long enought break in the 'summer' for families to do vacations, (and im not againts having 2 1month breaks).
Most school are around 180days, I would like to see a 210day , Gives a long enought break in the 'summer' for families to do vacations, (and im not againts having 2 1month breaks).
I think adding 6 more student weeks might be a bit much. I'd go for 3 or 4 at most.
Either way, it won't happen due to cost. You figure, an extra month would cost the system $7,500 in salary alone for just me. Add in benefits, transportation costs, a slew of support costs and I can't imagine what it would add to the budget.
Summer goes by fast as it is, I would hate to see it cut even shorter. Everyone would be trying to cram their family vacations into the same few weeks. Just imagine what that would do to beach traffic and rental rates....ugh. People can barely afford their vacations as it is.
Then you would no sooner get back from your trip and it would be time to get the back to school shopping done. So much for summer..
Also what would happen to swim team, camp, summer jobs and just being out in the fresh air and sunshine? Those things are important, too.
It would be better if schools would utilize online summer review programs to help kids keep their skills up.
Last edited by springfieldva; 08-14-2011 at 12:46 PM..
Either way, it won't happen due to cost. You figure, an extra month would cost the system $7,500 in salary alone for just me. Add in benefits, transportation costs, a slew of support costs and I can't imagine what it would add to the budget.
Exactly. Several of the rural school districts have gone to four-day weeks because of budgetary issues.
Also add in heating/cooling costs, electricity, sewer and water, etc... Many schools do not have A/C in the northeast, or other northern states, because they weren't planned to be used in the summer. Even in June and August when we would have days that were above 90 degrees, a certain dew point and humidity level, we would have an early dismissal due to unsafe heat conditions.
Don't forget, not all states count their school years in days, many count the year in hours (i.e. Colorado).
Summer goes by fast as it is, I would hate to see it cut even shorter. Everyone would be trying to cram their family vacations into the same few weeks. Just imagine what that would do to beach traffic and rental rates....ugh. People can barely afford their vacations as it is.
Then you would no sooner get back from your trip and it would be time to get the back to school shopping done. So much for summer..
Also what would happen to swim team, camp, summer jobs and just being out in the fresh air and sunshine? Those things are important, too.
It would be better if schools would utilize online summer review programs to help kids keep their skills up.
Not everyone gets to go some place on vacation and not everyone gets to take off during the summer. The average person is still working during that time so having a longer summer is pretty ridiculous. I think it's better to prep for real life....ie working all year and if your lucky you might get a 1-2 week vacation.
How about "different". I think in the long run it would end up being a little longer but I would like to see trimester systems (we have this already) BUT a week or two break between the trimesters then about 6 weeks off in the summer. The only "days off" during the trimesters would be for actual holidays. The schedule could be structured so Christmas break fell as one of those two week breaks, etc. During those break times, teachers could do inservice, have parent/teacher conferences, etc.
Right now our current district has a day off here, a day off there type deal and it just is so broken up for learning, etc. It would also cut down on the days missed for kids for dr appointments, dentist appointments, etc. Vacations would be easier to plan--and at less busy times.
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