They are going to a year round style calendar. They go for 4 sessions, with a 2 month summer break and 3 two-week breaks – one in October, one for Christmas, and one in March.

I thought they were moving to a year-round calender, so I wanted to give them a bit of a break. The other school districts have no excuse.

We don't live in an old agricultural society anymore that needs child labor to plant and harvest crops.

Our kids are entering a world where distance and location are less relavent and they need the time to go well beyond the basics needed to get by.

Abdul,

Below is a nice little piece you could rant about.
The biggest WELFARE recipient in the United States wears a John Deere hat. Not the inner city ghetto folk as some might think. This site (and numbers) will prove it.

http://farm.ewg.org/

Enjoy

Even Californians are waking up!
The rise of our Republic!
This is a classic now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ip_FtFo0s

How about focusing on 'quality not quantity, as the saying goes?

Hell I think we need to start first week of August and end the first week of June. Keep the kids off the streets.

My children go to a k-6 school that has an international focus with an emphasis on foreign language, geography, culture. The school is rated highly.

One of my kids best friends is from Japan. She speaks Japanese at home, speaks perfect english in school, and is learning Spanish. Grades are excellent. She goes to school M-F 8-4, studies every night AND she goes to Japanese school every Saturday.

Our kids are falling behind.

I like the idea of a year round system, especially that two week break in October. It would be very nice for a family vacation during off-peak season.

Franklin Twp Schhool calendar for this next year…. School starts August 11 and lets out May 20. High/middle schools begin at 7:10am…. sleeping in 1st period classes???
Students get released early EVERY Wednesday (???), they have (counting weekends) 4 days off for 'fall break', 17 days off for Christmas break, (and students go back on Tuesday Jan 4 instead of Monday), and of course Spring Break and all the other observed Holidays.
Christmas break should be Dec 24 and go back Jan 2nd.
Are these early release days and all these extra days out of school happen because of teacher union/contracts???
http://www.ftcsc.k12.in.us/docs/calendars/1011s...

Jaded influences of unions, NEA, ISTA, etc., call us to consider pimping for federal funds, per diem dollars for incarceration posed as education.

Wanna bet that private schools can educate per grade at a fraction of the cost & “time served” by the prisoner pupils of greedy educrats?

Abdul,
Mention this to Tony Bennett. He has mandated no half days. 180 full school days.

If you dig, though, you'll see Warren is doing the early start (just one week early) to allow for two weeks off in the fall, two weeks off at Christmas, and two weeks off for Spring Break. Sounds like a good trade-off to me.

The funding also doesn't appear to be there anymore for the all year school. Energy costs combined with the budget cuts have doomed it. Ben Davis only runs lights and air handlers, etc. during school hours, and the building was closed down on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all summer long (unless there was an event).

Add a week on to the end of the school year for every week we start later. So, if you want to start after Labor Day, that will put us at school through the end of June. There just aren't enough days to get it done.

It's simple math, my friend. Also, you might want to check how you spell calendar. See, I told you that you weren't perfect!

OH! One last thing…starting now makes it easier to run a college-like schedule for the semesters. If you start after Labor Day, you leg over the semester and the second quarter through the winter break. I remember when this was done. Teachers would always give big projects over break. I prefer to break the semester there.

Jon,

I'll check, and by the way, that wasn't me, it was the keyboard. :-) Hey, at least I didn't blame it on mu culturally challenged, European dominated education.

My Daughter is here from Minn visiting, i get to keep her until the end of August.She goes back day after Labor Day,A Blessing for me.Back in my day in Muncie we went back at the same time although it still was to short for most of us we never got bored back then in the 60s.
Of course things arent the same.

Abdul,

Are you complaining that the school year is too long or just the start date of the school year?

Not sure what the arguement is? Are you proposing more than 180 days of school?
Or that they have longer summer breaks. Maybe I need help with reading comphrension.

What is the gain of starting school at a later date?

What are we discussing? A yearning for yester-year when school started after labor day.

I agree with Abdul! School should start after Labor Day with vacation from Christmas to after New Year's Day and continue to June. August is too hot and is still the summer vacation season.

Franklin Twp school days are 7 hrs and 5 mins (7:10am -2:15pm). They have 7 class periods during this time, minus 6 mins between classes and 30 mins for lunch. Right at 6 hours of education. (6 hrs x180 days=1080 hours of educating…maybe)
Any thoughts/discussion to adding a hour to the day and then run school Sept thru May?
Savings…no A/C in August, no transportation costs, no cafeteria costs, etc….

I think a summer 'off' is a good thing. Time to decompress, relax, socialize with friends, develop outside of the rigid school environment, take a family vacation together, get a job.

I realize that hardly any of that takes place anymore. But it should be an option for the families and kids that are willing to make good use of the time.

The school calendar could be one criterion when parents choose the school their children attend. Vouchers anyone?

Vouchers are nothing more than financial aid for rich families.

Vouchers would be available for everyone not just the rich.

Next you will be saying that Charter Schools are just for the rich.

What a crock of BS.

Vouchers would cover tuition only what it would take to send a student to public schools…at least the plans I see.

Let's say a private school costs $15,000 to send your child to a private school. If it only would cost $5,500 to send your child to a public school, that's what you'd get. You'd still have to come up with the rest on your own. That's a big price to pay for poor families.

Thus, it would just be a tuition reduction for the rich.

Charter schools are not for the rich. Totally different animal altogether. Charter schools are free! I would assume you'd see public schools and charter schools in the same boat against the voucher system.

No offense Jon, but the rich / poor thing is without definition; the terminology of condescension. You might be “feeling it” but that's couch tripping, not the quality stuff which ought be policy making.

We've had enough emotional spaghetti thrown at the wall, posed as “public policy.” “Public education” already has most of the dollars, but can't handle competition; a free market phenomenon which places DOWNWARD pressure on pricing.

And what about abandoned “public” schools? Who says the owners (public) can't sell them to the highest bidder?

Who's the true arbiter of what is or isn't education? The government? If the answer is government, that's not working too well…

Jon is invested in the myths of government schools. Dave is too kind to mention competition when, in fact, government schools cannot even meet their own government standards. Dumbing schools down, dumbing down the SAT, lowering everything good about education while costing more is par for their course.
To see clearly in this area one must abandon the government myths and this would include listening to teachers complain about the inability to accomplish unreasonable goals.