OCR Text |
Show ' Year-round school program proving successful to all class to work on over the summer as she has done in past years. As an administrator, Wagner said that the most difficult thing is making mak-ing all families happy with the teachers and tracks, but she feels they are able to satisfy about 90 percent of the families. Mr. Tuckett, a sixth grade teacher at Adams, said that in the year-round year-round program he was able to get to know his students much better. He said his students formed a friendship friend-ship as a unit and learned to work well together. He observed that there was more of a problem the day they went off track than when they came back on. The main concern with year- round school is that the choice of teachers is not as great. Parents must adjust to the track that the teacher is placed in, which means that the student does not always get the teacher the parents desired. Another An-other problem occurs in June, when older siblings do not attend school, while the younger children have to get up and go to school. Generally, parents feel positive about year-round school. It gives them an opportunity to take longer vacations at other times of the year. It also gives parents more time to spend with individual children, even with those children in junior high and high school. Fourth grade students at Adams Elementary like year-round school. They like going to school for nine weeks with three weeks off. According Accor-ding to Alison Forsberg, "Just when you're ready to rip up your math book and tear up your teacher, school's out." As Mandi Van Dyke said, "School's so cool. It makes my taste buds drool. Year-round is awesome, cause it makes me blossom." The general consensus among administrators, teachers, parents and students is that this year has been a positive experience. The children are learning as much, if not more, and they are retaining more and expect to retain more during the short summer break. BY JANIS CARTER FARMINGTON S ummer vacation, vaca-tion, as we once knew it, is no longer existent for several elementary elemen-tary school children in Davis County. Coun-ty. According to Dr. Stephen Ron-nenkamp, Ron-nenkamp, assistant superintendent, this first year of year-round school in the district has been very successful suc-cessful and a positive experience for everyone involved. . He said that he has received ence. I can't think of many better places to be than in a comfortable air conditioned school in this 100 degree heat," said Bamett. Luc in da Wagner, assistant principal prin-cipal and kindergarten teacher at Sarah Jane Adams, said they have also had a successful first year. Adams Elementary has 1 , 1 48 students and approximately 800-900 800-900 in the school at a time. They have gone from an extended day program to a year-round program. According to Wagner the school has a feeling of peace rather than the chaotic feeling that existed with the extended-day program. She said there is less burnout from the teachers and the students. As a teacher she is able to spend less time reviewing and feels no need to send home work packets for her favorable comments from many parents and principals and feels like the district has their support. ; With the amount of children in Davis County and according to the studies done projecting future growth, year-round schooling is the only workable solution. Depending on the school, the district has been able to accommodate anywhere from 25 to 33 percent more children. : Although studies and evaluations have been made by a committee and recommendations have been given to the school board, there has been no decision made in terms of junior high schools going on the year-round year-round program. However, this is a viable option to dealing with the overcrowding in those schools, according ac-cording to Dr. Ronnenkamp. : The elementary schools on the 1989-90 year-round program were Sarah Jane Adams and E.G. King in Layton, Columbia in Kaysville and Knowlton in Farmington. In addition addi-tion to these four schools, next year East Layton, Lincoln and Woods Cross elementaries will be added to the program. Individual school administrators feel very positive about the year-round year-round program. Dale Bamett, principal prin-cipal of Columbia Elementary, said that there is a very positive feeling in their school. He said that the children are always settled down, they do not get hyper before Christmas and spring breaks because they have other breaks in the year. Columbia has grown from 500 students when they opened in 1982 to 1,000 students currently. There are approximately 800 students in the school at any given time. The switch from a traditional school to a year-round school has the support of the community. Out of 38 teachers in the school, only one has switched schools to go back to a traditional system. There are more teachers trying to get into - the year-round system than trying to leave it. 'It has been a positive expert- |