Published on: Thursday, February 16, 2012

By Alexis A. Goring

Prince George’s County Public Schools is considering offering year-round schooling for schools in need of reform.

“What national research indicates is that students in affluent homes do not show a loss in the summer months, but students in poverty do,” said Duane Arbogast, PGCPS chief academic officer. “So by having a much shorter summer vacation and more school (is) the key thing that we can (do to) actually stay in the game.”

Year-round schooling would extend the school year, but there would still be breaks.

“When people talk about year-round (schooling), they’re not extending the days, what they’re doing is extending the calendar,” Arbogast said. “The very common year-round schedule is nine weeks on, three weeks off with a little bit of an extended break around Christmas. At this moment, Prince George’s County does not have a plan to change the school calendar so that it’s year-round. And we currently have schools that are offering summer programs, but right now, we don’t have any schools that fiscally have changed their calendars.”

Wanda Robinson, principal of Oakcrest Elementary School, is not concerned about the effect year-round schooling would have on her learning community.

“Year-round school would not have a great impact on the administration at my school because all but two of the administrative, office and custodial staff are 12-month employees,” she said. “The teaching staff would have to have a rotating schedule based on the number of weeks the students would actually be in school. So, in essence, there would be a group of teachers who would have vacation for a few weeks at the same time that the students would have their vacation. Staffing would be less

of a problem than funding. With having to trim the budget every year, there is minimal funding to effectively implement year-round school.”

Robinson realizes that this option of year-round schooling would first be implemented only in schools that are in need of reform. Although Oakcrest is not in need of reform, Robinson said she thinks year-round schooling would be well-received.

“If my school was in need of reform, I strongly believe that the parents of my students would be in favor of year-round school,” Robinson said. “Because my school has a talented and gifted center, I would want there to be an added enrichment component for students who are on target or advanced so that they could receive even more.”

Faith Jackson, Charles Herbert Flowers High School senior and student member of the Board of Education, said students “are definitely against it for various reasons.”

“Summer is a very important time for students whether you just want to relax or whether you want to be part of certain experiences that are only available during the time span of the summer, so it’s just something that we’re really against as a student body,” Jackson said.

“I know for myself and for many other students, we’re against it because a lot of us use our summer break to obtain internships that help us with our resume and getting hands-on experience,” she added.

Initially, year-round schooling would be implemented in schools that are in need of reform in hopes to help students learn more and earn better grades and higher test scores. While she acknowledges the importance of the objective to help students excel, Jackson does not think year-round schooling is the answer.

“While I do acknowledge the fact that students often times do not remember a lot of things they learned in the previous year, a lot of times, we just need a break from school in order to process the information,” she said. “Year-round schooling is almost like you haven’t had time to reflect on what you learned the year before, and so it’s continued. There’s never a separation between the classes that you take this year and the classes that you take next year.”

While some students, like Jackson, who do not see the benefits in the option of year-round schooling, there may be a perk for teachers. Arbogast noted that extending the year changes the teacher contract to cover the longer school year.

“A longer school day, longer school year, I think will have a real strong impact on student achievement,” Arbogast said. “Again, I want to reiterate really clearly Prince George’s County does not have a current plan to extend the day or extend the year. We have to be in a different financial situation to talk about extending the year.”