> I am concerned about students studying at home on those
> nice summer days, athletes having practice over these
> breaks which would essentially not give them a complete
> break, or maybe going on vacation as families are forced to
> change vacation schedules, topics ending abruptly or rushed
> at the end of 9 weeks, summer jobs, etc.
>

Our district is currently making the move to a calendar very
similar to the one that you are describing. The only
difference is that we will have only two weeks off in between
each quarter, in addition to the two weeks off at Christmas.
There were many in our community who had concerns and strong
feelings about the issue. Tradition is a hard thing to
change. But it is tradition that dictates our “regular”
calendar, not educational research.

Let’s look at your concerns one by one…..
1) Kids studying during nice summer days….. Kids some how
manage to study during April, May, September and October.
Further more, our students are so used to air conditioning,
that many of them find summer days too hot and end up staying
inside most of the time anyway. Many of them would actually
prefer to have some time off when it is not quite so hot
outside. If this is true where I live (Minnesota) it is
definitely true to all points south of here.

2) Athletes having practice over breaks…..They have practice
over breaks NOW!! Our fall sports teams start practice weeks
before school begins. Our coaches also have practice over
Christmas vacation as well.

3) Vacation time…..When my husband heard about my new
schedule, he was overjoyed. Every single person he works
with had school age kids and it is a fight every summer over
who gets to take what time off. We are actually probably
going to be going on more vacations now because he can
actually get the time off and we will be saving money not
having to go during peak season.

4) Topics ending abruptly or rushed….How do you do it now
for Christmas break? Yes this one will take a little more
planning, but it can be done.

5) Summer jobs…..How many off your staff actually
have “summer” jobs? We have a percentage of teachers
working, but all but one have “second jobs” which they work
year round, not just during the summer. What percentage of
teachers on your staff is this actually going to effect?
Once you have that figured out, will this small number
justify not doing some about the well-documented loss of
learning that happens over the lengthy summer break. It
doesn’t.

Other complaints I heard at our district…..

6) The daycares won’t be able to adjust…. The day care
providers were actually a little offended at this because
they perceived it as an insult to their intelligence. The
towns, day care providers plan on doing the same thing they
normally do when they transition from May to June. The only
true worry was would the High school have the same days as
the elementary, since we have a lot of JH and HS girls
babysitting. The administration assured the public that they
two schedules would be the same.

7) The pool and city rec schedules would suffer….This one
got shot down pretty quickly because most of the rec events
happen in June and July anyways. Not to mention the fact
that the pool has a hard time with staffing after the college
kids leave in early August.

8) Teachers won’t be able to go to college during the
summer…..The district easily handled this argument by finding
out when summer college classes were and scheduled the summer
break around it.

9) The students will resist the new schedule……They will
until they have their first two week break. Then they’ll
love the second one. The one in the Spring when they are
truly going stir crazy in school will seem like a God send.
No there won’t be all that much resistance by the second
year. Besides, what activities that are fun the first two
weeks of summer are pretty boring by July, especially by
August. Most kids are “ready” for a change by the end of
July. The new schedule will give them four opportunities at
those “first two weeks” of summer.

10) My kids have so much fun during the summer/They do so
much…… I’m glad you do, but the reality is that most kids
don’t. With both parents working, most kids sit home and
watch TV most of the summer, especially after it gets boring
in July and August. Even the kids that aren’t watching TV,
don’t get to roam the neighborhoods like we used to. Most
are not allowed to leave the yard or apartment. As far as
the argument about them do so much, they can do that on those
two week breaks also, so that’s not really a legitimate
argument.

11) We’ve always done it this way……Actually we haven’t. All
students, ages 5-18, going to school from September to May,
for 7 hours a day, is actually a fairly new practice.
Sticking to tradition is fine if there is an actually reason
for it. There isn’t a reason for this one anymore. I live
in a small rural town in the middle of farm country, even
here less than 15% of our kids live on working farms. When
they are needed is not in the summer, it’s during planting
and harvest, which actually occur during the school year
itself.

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