Illusions or Solutions?

Recently, I reached out to our Governor's Office regarding the Opportunity Education Institution (or OEI) and the idea of year-round schools in Petersburg.

It is vital that Petersburg parents and citizens, alike, to reach out and hear both sides of the story before passing judgement on the OEI and year-round schools.  I was impressed at how easy it was to reach the Governor's office.  It was eye-opening to find out how Petersburg was viewed, from the outside looking in.  It was evident to me, right away, that the Governor's office was well aware of woes of the Petersburg City Public Schools and that we even seemed to sit high on their priority list for turn-around.


The OEI (Opportunity Education Institution)
In the coming days, I should receive some literature on this law that I plan on sharing.  I found myself in need of further education on how it works and, because of that, was unable to ask great questions.  It does seem to be a much more positive program than advertised by our local officials.  He said that they do NOT teach via television nor would they desire a change to year-round schooling.  They mentioned that the problem likely here is with instruction, the reading program, and the instructors.  Of course, state-takeover is less than ideal and would likely cost Petersburg even more money, but, something created to undo problems created by people not doing their jobs are often not so pleasant.  We also agreed that politics and pride dominate the decisions of our school officials here in Petersburg.  For the past 20 years, Petersburg has done whatever it takes to fight off State-takeover...if they just worked that hard to fix the real issues and make the tough decisions, our schools would have improved by now.

(Watch for a dedicated post on the OEI...coming soon)


Year-Round Schooling in Petersburg
I was surprised to find that both I and the Governor's office shared opinions on year-round schooling in Petersburg...and were both strongly against the idea for Petersburg.  Here are a few points I want to mention.

• Year-round schools pose very little, if any, advantage towards instruction.
• Year-round schools are almost always more expensive to operate.
• Very few schools systems in the United States of America have ever isolated just two schools out of a district for a completely different style of schedule.

So, if year-round schools offer little to no advantage (scholastically), may drive up educations costs, and are not commonly found in our area (or areas with similar demographics), then what is the real motivation behind this idea?  Why now?  For the Petersburg City Public Schools to fight off the State Department of Education from take-over, it has to have a strong, "outside-of-the-box" plan....this year, the "plan" is year-round schools.  After my talks with Governor's office, Petersburg City Public School officials, other state educators, parents and retired teachers, it is apparent to me that the motivation behind year-round schools is wrong and the effort and money being placed into this idea is being wasted.  

One simple rule in Education is this...

More instruction time and better instruction techniques get more results.

Why not just add instructional time at the pre-high school levels?  It has proven results and may not cost as much as year-round schooling.  Plus, I think the State Department of Education would be behind that idea and may even help find resources or means of getting the money to do just that.


I will say it again, if the people and parents of Petersburg care, they need to educate themselves about the many decisions facing our Petersburg Public Schools and tell our representatives what we expect them to do.