Teachers Recommend Bloomfield SD Consider Year-Round School (NM)

September 15, 2010

Jenilyn Freestone’s son Jason struggles every year at the start of school.

A fourth-grader at Blanco Elementary School, Jason is a special education student with memory problems. His grades improve throughout the year and he does well at the end of the school year.

Then summer comes.

"Oh my gosh, (the beginning of the school year) it’s hell," she said. "It’s like starting all over again from the year before. He feels like a failure because he can’t do the same work as the other students."

Jason has a condition that makes him more vulnerable to forgetting a year’s worth of lessons and school work during a three-month summer vacation. And studies have shown most students regress and need to be retaught concepts at the start of every school year, several Bloomfield teachers said.

The district previously created a committee of teachers and community members to weigh the pros and cons of year-round school. Later this semester, the committee will recommend the district study the local effect of year- round school and strongly consider making the switch, said Kelley Marquez, the principal of Blanco Elementary School and a member of the committee.

Freestone asked the board to switch to a year-round school calender as soon as possible at the Board of Education meeting Tuesday night. She said her son would be a better student if the district used a 45-days on, 15-days off schedule and shortened summer vacation to one month.

"Right now, we have some schools that would be interested in piloting that program," Bloomfield superintendent Joe Rasor said. "There are a number of issues being considered for (year-round school). One is academics. Do the children actually lose ground during the summer, and I think that’s the first priority. The other is budget."

The committee concluded that year-round school would be in the children’s best interest, but it also recognized there are other issues that need to be considered before making the switch, Marquez said.

"There’s a lot of lost instruction in the start up and shut down of schools," she said.

The teachers and administrators on the committee are not sure how the community will respond to the idea of year-round school, but suspect change will not be immediately embraced.

"It would be a huge community paradigm shift," said Karen Smith, the principal of Central Primary School.

If the surrounding districts, local day cares, churches and other childcare providers were not willing to work with the school district and its new schedule, it would be difficult to make the transition, Smith said.

"Traditionally , when schools aren’t in session for three months, that’s when big maintenance work gets done, reconstruction happens, things like," Smith said. "So you really have to look at that, what is the long-term plan for the school, because a lot of (those projects) would take place during a school session.

"It’s bigger than just looking at how it affects students’ academic needs."

Marquez thinks the entire county should consider switching calendars at the same time. If the Bloomfield School District switched to year-round school and other districts in San Juan County did not, organizing extra curricular activities, including athletics, would be difficult.

"There would be childcare issues. A lot of our families share school districts, we have children in our schools whose parents work in other school districts," Smith said. "That’s why it needs a study to look at feasibility."