Think about consequences of alternative schedule
Soon to come is an important decision that will have a great impact on our families and community. The Warren County Board of Education is exploring the idea of an alternative calendar for our entire school system. We ask that everyone explore the pros and cons of this concept. We would like to see more information out there for everyone to review.
Please understand I am not opposed to change that would greatly benefit my children and family life. But, I am opposed to change that is made just for the sake of change or because “everyone else is doing it.” I am not speaking only for myself, but for many other parents, several educators, and several city and county officials.
One of the proposed calendars is the 45-10 schedule. On this schedule, our children would be in school the entire month of August. The public needs to think outside of the box and consider how this would affect our small community.
For example, summer recreation, including camps, sports, swimming, fishing and boating, camping, roller blading, skateboarding, all types of outdoor physical activities would shut down for one-third of Warren County’s short summer.
Summer movie entertainment and dining out would also suffer. More quality family time would be snatched from our children. Personally, I do not believe Warren County could stand the loss of revenue that an alternative calendar could create.
I have researched this issue for approximately six months and continue to do so via the Internet. There are hundreds of thousands of Web sites to visit on this subject. And just like everything else, there are pros and cons to an alternative calendar.
But please don’t take my word for it. Do some research of your own. Please do not assume those extra breaks would be nice. The public needs to know a vast amount of research has been done concerning alternative calendars all across the country. Some research dates back 20 years.
According to information from the Auburn Bulletin by William While, “Since 1978 over 680 schools involving 400,000 students that adopted single-track, year-round schools later went back to the traditional calendar.”
Those schools have done the research for us. So why waste our community’s time and money making a change that is not significantly beneficial, but can have a negative impact on our families and community? We would not be on the cutting edge of a great idea; we would not be exploring a new concept; we would be, however, following a trend that has failed across the country for the most part.
Why would we want our young children to be confined to a classroom for an entire summer month when there is much to learn from summer experiences? My children feel punished if they have to spend one-third of their summer in school. I want my children to live a long, happy, healthy life. Why would I want to take one-third of my children’s short summer away from them and deprive them of their fleeting childhood?
Do you honestly think – really think – rearranging the days on a calendar is going to produce rocket scientists? I think not. To think that student outcomes will be improved simply by reconfiguring the calendar is absurd!
Some issues to ponder:
• Added expenses to taxpayers
• Loss of added summer income to teachers and students
• What about summer school?
• Daycare inconsistencies
• Extracurricular school activities during breaks
• The fact Warren County is the “Nursery Capital of the World” makes fall and spring the busiest time of the year for people in this business, therefore families could not vacation at this time when the two-week breaks would be scheduled.
• Wouldn’t we be pushing our children to a higher level of stress instead of being concerned about their mental and physical well-being? The responsibility should be first on the parents, then the educators, not only the children.
Whether you are for or against an alternative calendar, please do some research of your own and be able to make an educated decision. Then, please attend the public forum to be held by the Warren County Board of Education on Thursday, January 23, at 5:45 p.m. at the high school. Listed below are a few really good Web sites you should visit:
• www.summermatters.com
• www.geocities.com
• www.auburn.edu
• www.smarterkids.com
• www.kidsource
• www.ncpublicschools.org
There are several links at all the above sites.
Sincerely,
Maureen Gallagher
706 Love Rd.
Morrison