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Year round school options have good and bad sidesBy Barbara Brown Traditionally, year-round schedules are ìone-track,î meaning that all students are on the same schedule. According to a preliminary study, there would be four tracks in North Branch Schools. North Branch administrators are looking at a 60 days ìon,î 20 days ìoffî multi-track schedule. A multi-track program would divide students and teachers into groups of about the same size. Each track is assigned a different academic and vacation schedule. The board of education would implement the program in either kindergarten through sixth grade or kindergarten through eighth grade. At all times, 25 percent of students would be out of school, with the remaining students in school. According to information from the school board meeting, more than two million U.S. students in 3,248 schools in 44 states use a year-round schedule. Of those schools, 37 percent are multi-track. ï The four-track system would increase the capacity of the North Branch school buildings by one-third ï Family vacations are possible in all seasons without students missing school ï Off-track students could ride the bus to enrichment classes during the school year instead of waiting until summer ï School days would be during daylight hours and the same hours as they are now ï Spring and holiday breaks would remain in the schedule ï Day care costs could be spread throughout the year instead of concentrating on summer months. ïSome teachers may prefer the schedule and teachers could earn additional money by subbing or working in a special enrichment class ï Paraprofessionals could get to know students better by being assigned to one track ï Grade levels remain in the buildings where they are now ï Children moving to North Branch could be placed forward or back in a track depending on their needs ï Beneficial for the areaís migrant population. They include: ï Families may have to choose school over community and church activities that occur only at certain times of the year, such as swimming lessons or summer church events ï Parents would not be able to pick their childís teacher ï Day care provider schedules would not necessarily match school schedules ï Additional staff or more hours for current staff would be needed, especially for maintenance and janitorial services ï Required test schedules would have to be altered ï Students taking required tests may not be at the same levels when the tests are given ï Special school activities would be missed by one-quarter of the students ï Music classes would suffer because small choirs and bands would have to be formed in all the tracks ï Special remediation and acceleration classes would either have to be held four times or not offered School district finance director Randi Johnson said at the meeting that the schedule would cause record-keeping nightmares for the finance office. Minnesotaís laws are not friendly to the kind of year-round program that would be required in North Branch. Johnson said students may only be counted one time in a school year ñ September through June ñ and if the year-round program went into effect, the school district would lose about $1 million in funding because some students would move up in grades within the same academic year, but be counted only once for funding. Johnson also said at the meeting that air conditioning in the Main Street and Primary schools would be necessary. She also said a storage facility of some kind would have to be built to house teacher and student supplies when they are not in school. Overtime would have to be funded for custodial staff. Bus maintenance would increase and more teachers would have to be hired to cover courses in special education, music, art and media centers. Those expenditures, plus others, would create estimated additional costs to the schools for the first year of the kindergarten through sixth option of about $5.2 million with on-going additional expenses of $1.1 million per year. In the kindergarten through eighth option, initial year costs would be an additional $5.5 million, with an added cost of about $1.2 million per year. The school district could not levy for the difference because levies are only available for educational space. Funding would come from operating expenses. The school board will hold a wrap-up discussion in the North Branch High School auditorium Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. ©ECM Post Review |