I agree, LBBC said it very well.

 

As a mom of a child who struggled quite a bit when he was younger, summer break was a big relief. He needed the down time. In addition, it gave me the opportunity to do some reading with him that wasnt "school related", that was very helpful to him without the stress of school. It also gave him time to regroup and mature a bit in order to get ready for the next year.

Summer school, teachers continuing education, construction and cleaning/maintaining the buildings are 3 main ones for the long summer break.

 

Students use that time to make up the credits they have lost during the school year. There are some ways around this by using the time between quarters to make up the work lost that quarter.

 

Teachers use the summer months to complete coursework for the required master's degree while also picking up the administration degrees that are required for principal, dpp, counselor, superintendent, etc, etc.

 

Summer time is when serious construction, renovation can be done that could not be done in 2 weeks. Pendleton's two elementary schools is having major overhauls including a whole new roof put on both. That could not be done with students in the building or during the two weeks off.

 

The buildings need serious cleaning and maintaining to keep them in good shape. Waxing, painting, general fixing, deep cleaning all need time to complete. And not only the buildings but buses, too.

 

Also, if you are spending a great deal of time in class during hot summer months, you will see an increase in your utility bills. Summer time, you will not see the air conditioning being used much in the buildings as it would if students were in the building.

Everyone else gets their continuing education just fine without 3 months off in the summer. Most general maintenance/cleaning could be done in the 2 weeks off. If something is that wrong with a bus that you can't get it fixed in 2 weeks then your mechanic needs to be fired or you need to replace the bus. The utility bills wouldn't change that much if at all. There would still be the same amount of time that students wouldn't be in the building.

Everyone else gets their continuing education just fine without 3 months off in the summer. Most general maintenance/cleaning could be done in the 2 weeks off. If something is that wrong with a bus that you can't get it fixed in 2 weeks then your mechanic needs to be fired or you need to replace the bus. The utility bills wouldn't change that much if at all. There would still be the same amount of time that students wouldn't be in the building.

 

You are showing some ignorance of educational things.

 

1) Teachers who coach can use summer time to take 9-12 hours and get things done when they couldn't during the season. Administrators have to cover athletic contests, band concerts, chorus concerts, plays, etc, etc, etc during the school year. Summertime allows them to take those trainings that they cannot take after school during the school year.

2) You are going to plan on removing all furniture in a room, painting the walls, stripping the wax from the floor, mopping and cleaning, replying the wax in about 100 rooms in 2 weeks? Not to mention, going under the desks and removing all the gum. How about the fixing and cleaning of lockers when the students books are still in there. And that might be in only one building. You have the exact same stuff going on in every school in the district.

3) So, you are going to clean and repair 70-100 buses for alot of districts in 2 weeks? Seats on the bus where the covering has been cut, written on, ripped are repaired and fixed. Buses are washed out and cleaned. A school district like Jefferson County probably approaches 500 buses. You going to do all of that in 2 weeks while doing all of the other stuff too?

4) Do you use more air conditioning in June and July in your house compared to the fall, winter or spring? Trust me when I say that the air conditioning IS NOT in use at the same levels that they are when the students are in the building during June/July.

 

And you still didn't address construction. What would you prefer: 1) the construction workers to install a new roof onto two elementary schools while students are under the old roof. Going from a flat roof to a pitch roof, which having the students under it would be illegal to do so. 2) let that be done during the down time in the summer. Construction like this is going on all over the state.

You are showing some ignorance of educational things.

 

1) Teachers who coach can use summer time to take 9-12 hours and get things done when they couldn't during the season. Administrators have to cover athletic contests, band concerts, chorus concerts, plays, etc, etc, etc during the school year. Summertime allows them to take those trainings that they cannot take after school during the school year.

2) You are going to plan on removing all furniture in a room, painting the walls, stripping the wax from the floor, mopping and cleaning, replying the wax in about 100 rooms in 2 weeks? Not to mention, going under the desks and removing all the gum. How about the fixing and cleaning of lockers when the students books are still in there. And that might be in only one building. You have the exact same stuff going on in every school in the district.

3) So, you are going to clean and repair 70-100 buses for alot of districts in 2 weeks? Seats on the bus where the covering has been cut, written on, ripped are repaired and fixed. Buses are washed out and cleaned. A school district like Jefferson County probably approaches 500 buses. You going to do all of that in 2 weeks while doing all of the other stuff too?

4) Do you use more air conditioning in June and July in your house compared to the fall, winter or spring? Trust me when I say that the air conditioning IS NOT in use at the same levels that they are when the students are in the building during June/July.

 

And you still didn't address construction. What would you prefer: 1) the construction workers to install a new roof onto two elementary schools while students are under the old roof. Going from a flat roof to a pitch roof, which having the students under it would be illegal to do so. 2) let that be done during the down time in the summer. Construction like this is going on all over the state.

Has nothing to do with educational things. It's common sense. Every other working person has to make time outside of work and family to get their continuing ed or take classes in order to get their masters. What makes teachers special that they shouldn't have to sacrifice to do the same?

 

So your telling me that every single bus has to be repaired and every single room has to be painted and cleaned in 2 weeks? What about the other 10 weeks you will be off?

 

So AC is the only thing you will be running? What about the 2 week session in the winter that you won't have to run the heat as high? It is more expensive to heat a building then to cool it.

 

The only legit concern you make is the construction.

I need to keep reminding myself to stay out of all teacher/school threads. When the same old "what makes teachers so special?" comment comes up, I just want to hurl. :puke:

Has nothing to do with educational things. It's common sense. Every other working person has to make time outside of work and family to get their continuing ed or take classes in order to get their masters. What makes teachers special that they shouldn't have to sacrifice to do the same?

 

So your telling me that every single bus has to be repaired and every single room has to be painted and cleaned in 2 weeks? What about the other 10 weeks you will be off?

 

So AC is the only thing you will be running? What about the 2 week session in the winter that you won't have to run the heat as high? It is more expensive to heat a building then to cool it.

 

The only legit concern you make is the construction.

 

Not meaning to jump into your conversation (well, okay, I did). I see plus and minus factors for both sides.

 

However LBBC is raising a very good point about the summer months that are used in the school system. I can see some maintenance items being rotated during any of the major breaks. However, at what point do the teaching teams and principals address next year's approaches and plans for the curriculum year?

 

If a teacher is moving his/her class, he or she will have to do it in a smaller time frame. That includes changes if the teacher is moved from different grade levels.

 

Your heat concerns are not a factor. most schools (year round or not) will have a two week or more break between Fall Semester and the start of Spring Semester. So the heat levels will be the same irregardless of which model a school chooses. However a year round school will have to deal with the summer heat more, much more than the current model most use.

 

I might add that, believe it or not, not every school is centrally air conditioned. You will have to plan to either overhaul, tear down and/or build with those that are not.

 

I can see it either way. I think the long layoff hurts the struggling students.

 

Of course if teachers become 12 month employees, good luck on financing that jump.

Here is a link showing how one advocate would set up the calendar:

 

http://www.nayre.org/calendar_comparison.htm

 

One thing I saw in the link was that they had the current model as having 12 weeks of Summer.

 

This summer, our school system had 10, not 12.

 

Last week of class was during the first week of June and teachers worked the next week.

 

Teachers report here in the second week of August and school starts the following week.

 

 

Which begs a question, "Would the suggeste model in your link be able to handle the 'snow day' question better than the current model?"

Not meaning to jump into your conversation (well, okay, I did). I see plus and minus factors for both sides.

 

However LBBC is raising a very good point about the summer months that are used in the school system. I can see some maintenance items being rotated during any of the major breaks. However, at what point do the teaching teams and principals address next year's approaches and plans for the curriculum year?

 

If a teacher is moving his/her class, he or she will have to do it in a smaller time frame. That includes changes if the teacher is moved from different grade levels.

 

Your heat concerns are not a factor. most schools (year round or not) will have a two week or more break between Fall Semester and the start of Spring Semester. So the heat levels will be the same irregardless of which model a school chooses. However a year round school will have to deal with the summer heat more, much more than the current model most use.

 

I might add that, believe it or not, not every school is centrally air conditioned. You will have to plan to either overhaul, tear down and/or build with those that are not.

 

I can see it either way. I think the long layoff hurts the struggling students.

 

Of course if teachers become 12 month employees, good luck on financing that jump.

There will be pros and cons to any system. The bottom line is what system would students better learn in. I don't know if there is a better system then what we have and I agree with some of LBBC's concerns. But some just don't pass the smell test. And as far as teachers becoming 12 month employees what would really change? They would still get the same amount of time off it would just be spread out over the year. As far as the AC concern goes, I agree about the ones that don't have central air but the no way the ones that do have it don't run it during the summer. There is always things going on during the summer at the schools (as some have mentioned on here, summer school) so the AC is being used.

I need to keep reminding myself to stay out of all teacher/school threads. When the same old "what makes teachers so special?" comment comes up, I just want to hurl. :puke:

Funny, because I don't see anyone making those comments.

Has nothing to do with educational things. It's common sense. Every other working person has to make time outside of work and family to get their continuing ed or take classes in order to get their masters. What makes teachers special that they shouldn't have to sacrifice to do the same?

 

So your telling me that every single bus has to be repaired and every single room has to be painted and cleaned in 2 weeks? What about the other 10 weeks you will be off?

 

So AC is the only thing you will be running? What about the 2 week session in the winter that you won't have to run the heat as high? It is more expensive to heat a building then to cool it.

 

The only legit concern you make is the construction.

 

Funny, because I don't see anyone making those comments.

 

I guess I misunderstood.

First off, I am in favor of a more year round calendar than what we presently have. I would not have a problem with less of a time in the summer and it spread out throughout the year to give more recharging time for the students.

 

I was giving information on what goes on in the summer and how it takes a great deal of time to get all the work done in the summer.

 

I have not even addressed the hiring of new teachers, developing of a master schedule to put teachers in place to match the # of student requests for different classes at the high school level, putting 500-2000 students schedules together and looking for places that it will not work with the rooming arrangement.

 

BTW, counselors are only paid 20 days over all the summer time to do this.

I guess I misunderstood.

 

:lol: If only you'd had better teachers, then you would have comprehended better :lol:

First off, I am in favor of a more year round calendar than what we presently have. I would not have a problem with less of a time in the summer and it spread out throughout the year to give more recharging time for the students.

 

I was giving information on what goes on in the summer and how it takes a great deal of time to get all the work done in the summer.

 

I have not even addressed the hiring of new teachers, developing of a master schedule to put teachers in place to match the # of student requests for different classes at the high school level, putting 500-2000 students schedules together and looking for places that it will not work with the rooming arrangement.

 

BTW, counselors are only paid 20 days over all the summer time to do this.

 

 

I agree w/ you on most things. I could see it going down to an 8 week break and spreading the other 2 or more weeks throughout the year, but there has to be an extended break IMO.

If you want something very interesting, search Webster County who has saved several hundred thousand dollars per year by going to a 4-day week.

I agree w/ you on most things. I could see it going down to an 8 week break and spreading the other 2 or more weeks throughout the year, but there has to be an extended break IMO.

 

I think an 8 week break could work with a lot of things BUT construction. Heck we have been out since the week after Memorial Day and the roofs of our two elementary school are not done and it is debatable whether they are going to be done by Aug 18th when we are supposed to go back.

 

They have had to remove all the air conditioning units and things that were on the roofs, install posts to strengthen the ceiling with the new roof and we have yet to see the beginnings of a pitched roof over the present flat roof.

 

No way that the construction that is done to schools to update them can all be done in 8 weeks. Not without paying major overtime rates.