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Show Schoof Change Is Nded Scheduling Alternatives By KENT ALLEN During the third week of August, classrooms in Alpine School District will begin to fill and another year of educating our children will be underway. As in years past, the new school year brings an annual problem back into focus; overcrowding. Despite the school districts program of building new schools and adding more rooms to existing schools, the problem cannot be solved very quickly. Economics being the major deterrent. After several years of dealing with overcrowding, the administration of Alpine School District (hereafter referred to as ASD) offered five options for consideration of dealing with student housing other than new school construction. The alternative that drew more interest than favor was going on the plan at the same time, 3. Expense for school building modifications (air conditioning) and 4. Some changes in family lifestyle. Year round school plans have been adopted by several school districts across the nation. The nearest school districts to currently sche-dule year round schooling are Cherry Creek School District 5 and Jefferson County Schools in Denver, Colorado. The administrators of these districts served as consultants last fall when the UEA held a fact finding conference at Timpview High School. Both plans have been accepted in Colorado because of rapid population growth and subsequent over-crowding in the classroom. The people who came from these school districts to inform our teachers and administrators about year One of the fathers I talked with was strongly against year round schools. He said, "It didn't hurt you to go to school for nine months and vacation for three, so why should we change the system now?" Others expressed the view, "After seeing a bright sunny day like today, how could you keep a childs mind on his studies?" One mother suggested paying more to help have more resource classes available. Just about everyone has an idea or suggestion that they feel would improve their childrens education, but very little is done about it. In the June 23rd 1980 edition of Time Magazine, the whole issue was dedicated to the study of the Soviet Union. The section on education was very infor-mative. The Soviet children attend "45-15- " UulAugieplOc?i?ov ffcnfebjrlAprlMaylJ Modified "Concept 6" BiuglSep lOctl Nov(Dec Janetjflar lAprMay Uun School Vacation option A: Year Round School. There are several schedules for year round schools. The two plans which ASD studied, maximized building use on an increase of from 33 percent to 50 percent above current figures. The first, the 45-1- 5 plan is a quarter design with students assigned in equal groups to one of four tracks, Each group attends school for nine weeks then has a three week vacation. The tracks are staggered so that three groups of students are in school and one group is on vacation at any one time. This plan increases building capacity over the year by 33 percent. The second, the Concept 6 plan divides the year into six sections of 44 days each. The students are in school for approximately four months and vacation for two months then the process is repeated. This plan increases building capacity by 50 percent through the year. As reported in a bulletin from ASD, the greatest strengths of year round school plans are: 1. Increased building capacity, 2. Year round use of buildings. 3. More flexibility in enrich-ment and remedial oppor-tunities, 4. Greater learning retension and 5. Improved education quality. The greatest problems of year round schools are: 1. Student scheduling (to keep all family members on the same track), 2. The necessity t of the whole community round programs, stated they had found some surprising advantages with the system that they had not forseen. Because of shorter vacations, there was less learning loss, eliminating extra review time; drop out rates declined because of flexible scheduling which made it easier to drop back in for students; stress and illness absenteeism declined, and teacher-studen- t burn out rates declined. During my investigation of year round schools, I have talked with many people. school six days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The required curriculum runs through tenth grade and covers about the same amount of material that U.S. students receive attending five days a week from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The Soviet Union insists on very close ties between parents and schools. If parents fail to respond when problems arise, school officials may notify the Cont. on Page 15 I Assorted ! Biotas Jp 1 - 1 Price I Large Selection While Supply Lasts l J "ALL PROFITS ARE USED TO KEEP MISSIONARIES IN THE FIELD" S i s Wmf AND .,. ' ' 'J? 4to6X y'5" 7-1- 4 T 25 to 34 V 3 TEHAFFEC JEANS Pas orm sp.Fk. Factory Outlet t ,1 13S N. Stale 250 W. 500 S. r 228 0661 798-352- 9 |