A Carroll County proposal that calls for students to attend school year-round could significantly reduce construction costs, proponents told The Examiner.
Sam Pepper, executive director of the San Diego-based National Association for Year-Round Education, said a school district might have to pay more for teachers but would save more money because it would no longer need to build new schools.
“If you compare it to building a new school, it?s going to cost you far less,” Pepper said. “That?s what most don?t understand. They just can?t wrap their minds around that.”
More students can use a building in a year-round system where a fraction of students are always out of school at staggered times, saving costs on building new schools, he said.
But some parents oppose the concept.
Kelly Frager, PTA president of Mount Airy and Parr?s Ridge Elementary, said traditional summer vacations benefit students.
“We want to raise well-rounded students, not just well-educated students,” Frager said.
Peppers countered that 80 percent of schools that switch to year-round school stick with it. Year-round school improved education and behavior at Point O?View Elementary in Virginia Beach, Va., which is going into its fourth year with the program.
“I foresee it?s probably the wave of the future,” said Edward G. Timlin, principal of Point O?View Elementary. “We don?t have kids working in the fields anymore.”
Carroll Superintendent Charles Ecker strongly supports creating a system where students attend 45 days and then are off for 15 days.
He joins school board president Gary Bauer, who last week urged Ecker to present a cost analysis of the proposal.
Baltimore and Howard counties considered year-round school about a decade ago, but parents refuse to surrender traditional summer vacations, Ecker said.
“I think they would be resisting at first,” said parent Candy Arnold, whose daughter is entering middle school this fall. “As a parent, it?s all about how you sell it to your child.”
