A Fairfax County experiment with extra-long school years will come to an end this spring, targeted by the district’s severe budget cuts.
Seven of the county’s elementary schools, all but one of them among the county’s poorest, operate on a “45-15” model, meaning 45 days, or nine weeks, in school, followed by 15 days off. The setup allows for several two-week “intercessions,” when the schools offer extra tutoring to struggling students and summer-school-like classes for the rest.
The district will save about $2.7 million handing summers back to students and teachers, but parents fear the lost opportunities will chip away at what makes the schools — and the district — the envy of their neighbors.
Schools that will no longer operate on a modified calendar with extra school days:
Annandale Terrace Elementary (Annandale)
Dogwood Elementary (Reston)
Franconia Elementary (Alexandria)
Glen Forest Elementary (Falls Church)
Graham Road Elementary (Falls Church)
Parklawn Elementary (Alexandria)
Timber Lane Elementary (Falls Church)
“Not only has the calendar helped close gaps in learning for the kids who’ve needed it, but it’s also been an important time for enrichment” for everyone else, said Rylan Hutzler, president of the parent-teacher association at Reston’s Dogwood Elementary.
Hutzler said the program has proved especially valuable to Dogwood’s non-English-speaking students, many of whom have suffered academically moving from country to country and school to school.
“And for the kids doing fine, there was a ‘young scholars’ program. That opportunity will be greatly missed, as well,” she added.
Intercession started Monday at Alexandria’s Franconia Elementary, where most students chose between “Math Mania” and “Mystifying Magic,” said Carilyn Waterval, vice president of the PTA.
“A lot of the things getting cut in the district — like this calendar — these are the things that have made our school system great,” Waterval said.
School board member Jane Strauss doesn’t disagree, but said the dire budget shortage requires funds to be targeted more specifically.
The modified calendar “has been a wonderful thing,” Strauss said. “But when you’re so short on money, it’s a very difficult thing to sustain over time.”
Strauss said that demographics have shifted since the first modified calendar school opened at Falls Church’s Timber Lane Elementary in 1996. As a result, some other schools in the district are in greater need of extra dollars. In addition, studies have not been able to prove that a modified calendar alone improves schools’ test scores.
“We’re trying to move to a situation where the resources follow the specific needs of the children and the schools,” Strauss said.
