Year-round schools catch trustees’ attention
WATERLOO REGION — Do children learn better by attending school yearround, rather than taking two full months off in the summer?
Three public school trustees have asked the Waterloo Region District School Board to pick two elementary schools to test a calendar that shortens the summer break.
Trustee Kathi Smith points to children who forget what they learned over the summer and have to be brought back up to speed in September. Also, she sees the extended break as difficult for some children whose families can’t afford camps and vacations.
“Some of them do nothing for the summer. Some of them get into trouble for the summer,” Smith said. “There are kids that cry on the last day of school because they don’t have a place to go for the summer.”
Year-round schooling is not a new idea. A handful of Ontario schools do it and some other Canadian schools do it.
Students attend classes for the same number of days over the year. Typically, summer vacation at nine weeks is slashed to four weeks with vacations spread out more evenly. A school year might start in August and end in June.
“I think it’s worth exploring,” trustee Mike Ramsay said. “Anything we can do that has the potential to improve student learning and achievement I think is worth looking at.”
Proponents argue that it makes learning smoother and more even. Students forget less. Teachers don’t have to catch them up as much.
Critics counter there’s no proof of better learning and summer vacations refresh students, families and teachers. Also, summer classes might be unfeasible in older schools without air conditioning.
On Monday, public school trustees will debate Smith’s proposal to test year-round schooling at two undetermined elementary schools, in Kitchener and in Cambridge. She proposes to test it for two years and evaluate it.
The proposal has yet to be approved. If most trustees support it, Smith hopes yearround schools could be launched by September. The board would have to work with teacher unions, Ramsay said.
Smith said there are schools and teachers keen on year-round schooling. “Not every teacher is going to jump up to do this,” she said.
“I do think that it is an idea that does warrant conversation and consideration at the board table,” trustee Natalie Waddell said.
Educators have been debating pros and cons for years. Research on whether yearround schooling improves student achievement or offers other advantages is often described as mixed.
Ramsay is not sure why a nine-week summer break is needed. He remembers when the school board sought to align its summer schedule with planned shutdowns of big factories that no longer exist. “Should we continue a process that was made to fit another time? I don’t know,” he said.
The nine-week summer break “was based on an agricultural model. But we don’t have that may kids who are on farms,” Smith said.