Saturday, July 07, 2007

Support School Calendar Choice

I’m a parent of 4 children in the Wake County school system.  We chose our current house due to it’s proximity to a 3 school “campus”.  The Elementary School, Middle School, and High School are all physically connected, and we walk to and from school on a very regular basis.
My main concern with the year-round conversion is that by converting our Elementary School to a year-round calendar while leaving the Middle School and High School on a traditional calendar, my family will be split.  (I’ll have 2 at the elementary school this year and 2 at the middle school)  We are a very close family and enjoy doing things together AS A FAMILY—-this includes “big things” (such as vacations) and just as importantly it includes the little “everyday activities”.  I feel fortunate that I can stay home with my children, and we stay very busy doing things together.  We enjoy the long summer, and stay so active that my kids don’t experience “summer boredom” that I hear about.
Just for a little background information, when our elementary school was initially on the conversion list, many of us didn’t take it seriously because of our unique 3 school campus setup.  Our Middle School was on the initial conversion list and then taken off, so we just assumed that the Elementary School would never be forced to convert. 
A small group of a few concerned and committed parents grew into a huge group of concerned and committed parents who set out to show the School Board that we did not NEED to convert to a year-round calendar to handle the growth in our area, and we also did all we could to prove that we did not WANT it.  To see 450+ people at a PTA meeting raising their hands in opposition of the conversion was a pretty AWESOME sight.  But in the end, because there was no Plan B, the conversion is going through.
I was not involved in the Wake Cares lawsuit, although I have a great deal of respect for those in the Wake Cares organization.  Like me, they felt that their suggestions, solutions and options had fallen on deaf ears.  They felt compelled to fight the conversions for all of Wake County’s families, which I greatly appreciate.  Unlike me, they were willing to take the next step—-I was not willing to subject my family to the ridicule that they have unfairly received as a result of their efforts.  As we all know, Wake Cares was successful in the courtroom, but the conversions are still being forced on the 22 schools.
I feel that the school calendar should be a CHOICE.  I am certainly not afraid of change.  I actually think that change can be a good thing when it’s something you have chosen to do.  Making the actual change from traditional to year-round is not threatening in the least.  I have moved 13 times in my life, and change does not bother me at all.  I just do not like being forced to have my children on different school schedules, ESPECIALLY when I know that the conversion of our school did not have to happen.  It will be interesting to see actual enrollment numbers once school gets started.
A few of the different arguments FOR the conversions came to mind as I left our “Meet the Teacher” day on Thursday.  Those who were pushing so hard for the conversions mentioned that they “don’t want their children eating lunch as late as 1:30 in the afternoon”.  Another argument was that “children should have class inside the building and should not be forced to have class in modular and mobile units”.  WELL, my daughter will be eating lunch at 1:40 PM AND my son will have class in a modular—-and this is WITH THE CONVERSION.  These things did not bother me before, and they still aren’t an issue.  However, these 2 arguments were used as being “unacceptable” and supposedly the year-round conversions would solve those problems.  Obviously, this is not the case at our school—I’m curious to hear about the other 21 schools forced to convert this year..
If you dig enough into the research, you can find LOTS of studies that “prove” a traditional calendar education is superior to year-round.  BUT, you can find just as many studies that “prove” a year-round education is superior to traditional.  Honestly, it all depends on what you are trying to “prove”.  In my opinion, it comes down to what is best for YOUR family, and only YOU can make that decision. 
We’re moving forward, and for the sake of my kids I have to be positive about the year-round schedule.  Regardless of whether I think it’s good/bad or right/wrong, in 2 days I’ll have 2 children in school and 2 still on summer vacation.  I’m not thrilled about it, but I choose to remain cautiously optimistic for my children.
ANY THOUGHTS???
(I’m sorry for the long post.  I’ll do my best to keep future posts much shorter.) 

WHAT???  Your child will have lunch at 1:40??  And another still in a modular?  That is unacceptable,, especially given the fact that this “conversion” was suppposedly going to end all of that!  The School Board was entirely mistaken to make these conversions.  I will be very interested to see how all 22 schools converted fair this year.

My child is also at Leesville Elementary and she went from having lunch at 1:15 last year to having lunch at 10:45 this year. I am against year round conversions as my husband has a job in which he bids on his schedule yearly so our vacations are already set and the track we have does not correspond with our vacations. Although I have to say that our principle did everything he could to help us get as good a schedule as possible. It was good enough to keep us here however not enough to keep our schedule intact, I now have to take her out of school for a week that she would not normally have had to take. I was one of the parents that had originally put in for a traditional school but then I find out they could not guarantee transportation, so with the track change that we eventually got I pulled our application to the traditional school that was over 30 minutes away from our house. (Who knows what that would have been on a bus?) Anyway just wanted to support traditional options but felt with the forms sent out only having a week to decide and not knowing where my child would have been sent we really didn’t have a choice.

One of my three is at Leesville elementary, the oldest middle school, the youngest preschool, talk about schedule conflicts!  Anyway our first day at LES for the middle one went great, HOT, but great.  I am disappointed however that yes even in 2nd grade they are having lunch at 1:35pm and with no snack yesterday.  Hoping that snack thing will smooth out, but that is just really late for lunch.  Although the comments to me about the numbers being much smaller than anticipated, let’s keep in mind that at Leesville, for example, even at 800+, this was a school built to house 650!!  So, technically, we are still way over the limit anyway.
All in all, I think one of the most important things to remember in all of this is to VOTE in the upcoming school board elections and let your parent voices be heard!

I have one a Leesville Elementary and one at Leesville Middle and although I am not against the year round concept, I agree that parents should have been given a real choice.  Choosing an unknown is not a choice. My kids are close and I can tell that my Middle schooler misses having her sister around. Anyway, my 4th grader started school on Monday in a modular classroom (which is an issue).  As I walked her to her class I noticed that there was a classroom with the door closed and lights off and it was marked as the classroom for one of the teachers on Track 4…how does that make sense to have a classroom sitting empty?  I thought the whole purpose of year round was to provide additional classroom space.  The other thing that I am bothered by is that my daughter has her lunch at 10:30….again I thought year round was supposed to provide more “normal” lunch periods. 10:30 is more like brunch.  Also this year the Dance and Drama class is no longer offered due to the year round schedule.  I’m really scratching my head as to what the benefits of this conversion have been. I think it is obvious that Leesville Elementary was better off being traditional.

My children were applied students at Morrisville elem year round but we were reassigned to our base school Green Hope Elem, one of the converted schools. My 5th grader had the option to stay at Morrisville Elem but as stated in the consent form “no bus assignment” & her younger siblings had no other option but to move to the base school.  I learned from my neighbor, who opted for his child to stay (& his youngest kid at Green Hope Elem), BUS ASSIGNMENT WILL NOW BE PROVIDED! I cannot believe this! If I had known that there was a fine print that was not printed, I would never have moved my 5th grader, saved her the grief & depression she is now going through. Excuse the language, but the BoE and whoever drafted the consent form are not just a group on incompetents but LIARS, too! I definitely agree with you Lisa B., school calendar should be a choice.  We love year round because it works for us but it should be a choice, a real choice and not the kind we have were presented this year.

Lisa..

Thanks for sharing your experience.
Alot of promises seem to have been broken, as well as projections way over and under numbers given to support the conversions.

We can only hope that in the future the WCPSS will listen to families,and not just administrators ar 3600 Wake Forest.

Sadly, this could’ve been avoided.

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It’s a great point. But it should be agreed by the administration.
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You are there! by giving a great point.It is a fine written article. Thanks for sharing with us.
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Of course yes,change can be a good thing but the school admin should agree with your point.What i feel on 2 points ie. having lunch late& having class in modular setup are no matter its your kids wish but your kids should follow the rules for the school to be disciplined as a whole.

Of course yes,change can be a good thing but the school admin should agree with your point.What i feel on 2 points ie. having lunch late& having class in modular setup are no matter its your kids wish but your kids should follow the rules for the school to be disciplined as a whole.

All the activities are important and we should set aside time to work out a space for them.