Schools chief wants to scuttle year-round calendar

Schools chief wants to scuttle year-round calendar at Vincent

January 06, 2005
MARIE LEECH
Birmingham News staff writer

Shelby County school officials want to scrap the popular year-round schedule Vincent schools have followed for more than a decade, but they will have to face irate parents and teachers first.

	...the fact that we have good teachers is what makes the difference, not the calendar."

"It's time we stop operating as two school systems," county school Superintendent Evan Major said. "We are a school system, not a system of schools. There is no rationale for us having two calendars."

Vincent schools became the first in the state to switch to a year-round calendar 11 years ago in an attempt to enhance student achievement. All other Shelby County schools are on a traditional schedule.

The type of schedule described as "year-round" includes more frequent breaks and a shorter summer break than the traditional schedule allows.

Major said he will recommend at the Jan. 27 Board of Education meeting that all county schools use the same calendar for the 2005-06 school year.

Vincent parents, teachers and students argue that since the switch to a year-round schedule, standardized test scores have increased steadily, and so has morale among students and teachers.

"We've had a year-round schedule here for so long, that's all the kids know," Vincent Elementary School Principal Tricia Corbett said. "We don't spend as much time re-teaching at the beginning of the year. It gives us the opportunity to take vacations throughout the year, and there's not as much burnout. I'd be very disappointed if we went back to a traditional calendar."

Gary Minnick, principal of Vincent Middle/High School, has been at Vincent for only three years but prefers the year-round schedule to the traditional one he followed while working at Calera schools.

"I understand there are some advantages to having all the schools on the same calendar," he said. "But I think the year-round calendar is more beneficial."

Major said he can't ignore the inconveniences of having the system's schools on two different schedules. When other schools are out but Vincent is in session, someone in every major department still has to be on duty, he said. "There has to be someone on duty in maintenance, transportation and the district office."

Also, he said, under the No Child Left Behind Act, parents of students at a failing school have the option of sending their children to a different school in the same district. It makes more sense in that situation to have all the schools on the same schedule, he said.

Bridgette Smith, PTO president for Vincent Elementary, said the year-round calendar has been a blessing.

"It allows more flexibility. Teachers and students don't have to take the day off for doctor's appointments or to go on vacation, because they can plan it around the breaks," she said. "Not only have the test scores improved, but morale is also good. There's no burnout because everyone is fresh."

Major said he knows he's in for some opposition, and he sympathizes with Vincent parents and students. "But the fact that we have good teachers is what makes the difference, not the calendar," he said.

Smith disagrees and said she will attend the January board meeting to voice her concerns.

"If we have to go down, we're going to go down fighting," she said.

E-mail: mleech@bhamnews.com