Year-Round Schooling in Petersburg

Since starting this page, especially, I have heard of many different ideas on ways to improve Petersburg City Public Schools.  Many ideas, though challenging to enforce, sounded like positive ideas.  Our Petersburg City Public School Board and Superintendent, however, have an idea that just may be the worst idea yet....year-round schooling.

Petersburg City Public Schools have been awarded a $50,000 planning grant from the State of Virginia Department of Education to be used to do a feasibility on instituting year-round schooling programs at Peabody Middle School and A. P. Hill Elementary School, both slated for State takeover in 2014-2015 by the Opportunity Education Institution.  The School Board is expected to vote on year-round schooling in November.

Need to know more about what a feasibility study is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feasibility_study

Superintendent Dr. Joseph Melvin is a strong supporter of year-round schooling and is the catalyst behind the idea in Petersburg.  As much as I want to trust his intentions and experience, I also quickly realized, during a recent conversation, that he would do just about anything to prevent a State takeover.

Here is what I think about year-round schooling:

First, I think it is preposterous to have just 2 schools out of 8 going year-round.

Second, there is no proof that changing schedules will help test scores.  If our children are really forgetting their studies over the summer, perhaps our teachers did not teach them well or at all.

Third, there is a heritage and history to having a summer break.  Year-round schools would destroy the traditional summer vacation, disrupt family vacations, trips, summer jobs, summer child custody exchanges, and more.

Forth, there are life-style logistics to be considered, such as child-care.  How will our local daycare's and summer-break related business transition?  How will parents adjust?  Seems like a lot of stress on what are likely already over-stressed households.

Fifth, do our over-stressed under-supported children really need to be experimented on, especially at the two schools struggling the most?

I could go on and on with reasons, but the simple fact is there are not enough potential positives to offset the potential negatives, despite the "feasibility" of year-round schooling.

Don't just take my word for it, though...

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/choosing-schools-programs/pros-and-cons-year-round-schools

http://www.schooltutoring.com/blog/pros-and-cons-of-year-round-schooling/

No where did I find solid statistics supporting scholastic improvements as a direct result of year-round schooling...shouldn't THAT be the goal to any purposed changes?

We must NOT let our school leaders and school board experiment with wild ideas on our children.  We can NOT allow them to keep dodging the real issue here....PERSONNEL!  You want to improve schools...find and PAY better teachers...improve the classrooms and school grounds...improve classroom technology...the kind of changes that are PROVEN to help.

No more wild guesses or hair-brain schemes...there are no "easy outs".

Every single parent needs to contact their representative on the School Board and call Superintendent Dr. Melvin and voice your concerns, whether you support or oppose year-round schooling.  If you do not speak out, they will just do what they want.