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Show By ANNE BRISTOW Concerned Parent Supporting Year-Round School I believe that the traditional school system with its long summer break does a disservice to our children. Not only does the long break drive mothers moth-ers crazy, but it also stretches the children's ability to keep themselves occupied. oc-cupied. On a more serious note me long break takes the children out of a positive learning routine and teachers are forced to spend months on unnecessary un-necessary revision. It would appear that the change to extended day is a half-hearted effort at revising an archaic system bequeathed to us by a bygone by-gone agricultural society. , The intention of reducing the pressure on existing exist-ing schools and in reducing class size is poorly served by the extended day program. At East Layton the size of the core classes has been reduced to about 25 students; however, the size, of the other classes has increased to. , around 45 studentsCv f fM; c ' ' 7k'i:a: 4$ v'.-y :t?:v':. & I suppose changing schools to year-round would cause' some degree of hardship. Teachers and administrators would have to forfeit their extra jobs in summer as would some of the high school students. However, the school ; system is supposed to provide our children with a sound education and a strong foundation for, their future careers. Any decision on the education system should only.cotSda Changing ear rouT,irtayalso shorten foptitll $4 basketball seasons' by a week or two. OnoV again that is a small price to pay for a better educational edu-cational system, r t: " ' ' " - - ::-W''-' Schools in Utah .should be uniform. That is, all schools should go on year- round and should include junior high and high schools. This would necessitate coordinating vacation breaks in areas so that families can plan. ' joint vacations. Year-round school would provide the continuity our chil- ' dren need and would reduce wasted days spent on revision. The regular breaks would reduce teacher fatigue and give the children a break just when they felt that school was never going to end. , . ; Now for a few suggestions for the classroom. In junior high and high school, students should have home rooms for subjects that dp not require specialized equipment For example: English, math, history, health, bookkeeping, book-keeping, language, etc. These classes would be held m the same class in a . block of periods. It would be far less chaotic with a few teachers and only half the student body moving each period. Another improvement would be to get rid of all those floating pieces of paper. Students should have two notebooks for each class. When the teacher takes one book to mark, then the student works in the other book. This practice makes it easier to revise work for exams and reduces the likelihood of lost work. Schools should enforce stricter dress and grooming codes. Uniforms would solve many dress code problems. ' t , We are constantly informed that the school districts are under-funded i and therefore unable to provide the changes or the level of education that . , our children need. A small school fee would go a long way towards eliminating elim-inating this problem. , ' , . e .Aside from an outdated school system, our teachers do an outstanding i- job, and parentteacher interaction is excellent 'sjy r. P.S. If mere is to be a change, please do it after I have had my next long t summer break. , ' v. ;, ' 1 ... ;- .: - ri'i ver ' - O By J ANIS FURLOW - - - - - - . , - Concerned Parent " a - Opposing Year-Round School - 7 r - When asked the question "Which would I favor the most, the extended t day program or year-round school," I couldn't honestly say that I favored Editor's Note: Growth is the .fnost pressing issue facing Davis County school officials. Several task force committees have been organized or-ganized and are working to develop recommendations concerning the placement of students in schools add the type of school programs that will be ofTered--traditional, extended day or year-round. This week's Crossfire guest columnists offer some good information about year-round school and extended day. Two more guest columnists colum-nists will give their viewpoints next week. either. I, luce many other parents, would.like our schools to stay on the traditional tra-ditional schedule to which we are ialLaccustomed. However, I know be-, be-, cause of such rapid growth problems that changes are inevitable. I feel this . . state is cheating bur children in one of the most important aspects of their lives, that of their education. They are jeopardizing their future and the fu: tore of our state by not allowing proper funding for education. .When! I was very first approached about the extended day program, I wasn't sure that I liked the sounds of I was worried about class sizes be-.- ing too large and that teachers may have trouble relating to children on an individual basis. We were told that core classes such as reading, English, math and etc. would have between 30-32 students per class, which is about vthesame as present f , ; . . Classes such as. science, art and PJE. would have around 40 students per . class because the students wouldn't need as much one on one time with the i j teacher. We as parents were assured that our children would still have a '4 proper education, 'vf7-; ,:- j?''!.v....-v, ' , On extended day the school wouldjpe divided into schedule A and sche- dule B. Schedule A (for example) would start at 8 ajn .and would end at '. about 2:15 p.M: Schedule B would begin at 930 am. and end at 3:45 p.m. '" ".While, Schedule A would be in core classes Schedule B would be in art, ;.-'P:'lC4: thenthey would switeh(bpdules in he afternoon. Teachers ttgilbfame schajihte day;' to the ex- ' I tended day program during' the 1989-$Q scbgpl year, I was then approached about year-round SchobL I feel that people idon't have much information about his and they should be educated on it This is how I understand the program;fowork;- i.V&.s, .: Jhe students yould be on different schedules which are called tracks. The number of. tracks ' your school would have would depend on your school enrollment; This means ther school would be rotating schedules - yeaf-round with the exception of the month of July, when the school is closed formaintenance. The.student wpuld go to school for six weeks and be off for three weeks. There are other .schedules such as six weeks on and two weeks Off. It really is up to your school how they run it All students would be off on the usual holidays including Christinas vacation. -'.Year-round school is something I am having a struggle accepting. My concerns or struggles are not really oyer the quality of education my children chil-dren will receive on either program. I feel either program will give diem a good education. My concerns are based around my own children's needs on both an educational and family basis. , Both'programs have advantages and disadvantages. In each family these will be different . . ? ; ; I have children in junior high. The year-round program at this time will not be implemented into the secondary, schools. This creates a problem for Amy family, oecause. we will be on very conflicting schedules, for such things as"vacations, working parents will not have older brothers and sisters ' home (o tend elementary children, which means money out of their pocket; teachers and schedules change every four-six weeks (how does your child accept change); there won't be the opportunity for extra classes such as computer; etc.; problems with children that are in a split home, such as going go-ing with other parent for we summer. ; . 1' -J' These are just a few of the problems we need to think about If we go to year-round school then our secondary schools need to be more cooperative in arranging family schedules. . ' . -' v f ' There is no easy.answer and even though I favor extended day, I will go with the flow because I really won't have a choice. Our school systems are changing and I feel eventually we will be teaching our children in our homes because the money just won't be around. - - |