By Tanner Kent
MADELIA — Nothing invites discussion like a school calendar.
And there was plenty of that during Monday’s public input session on the Madelia School District’s proposal to stretch the current 10-month school calendar into a full year.
“This is not the plan yet — we want input,” Madelia Supt. Brian Grenell said. “If it’s not going to improve education, then we don’t need to do it.”
Grenell repeatedly told his audience of about 100 that the district’s proposal is in the earliest of stages. He said school officials have not put together an estimate for what the calendar would cost and acknowledged that, before any decision could be made, financial and community concerns would need to be explored further.
In addition, he said, state law requires that districts hold at least three community meetings and submit a detailed proposal to the state before any such calendar change can be authorized.
Grenell said the district has not formulated an exact calendar, but he did display a “prototype” that would have students begin the year in mid-August and release for the year in mid-June. During the school year, students would spend about six weeks in school, then two weeks out.
The prototype calendar, although year-long, did not contain extra classroom days.
Grenell said such a scenario might provide an earlier window to intervene with struggling students (as opposed to waiting until the summer for remediation) and that other students could use the two-week breaks to pursue supplemental activities.
“We are looking at this as an educational improvement,” Grenell said. “The issue is, are kids needing extra help and are kids needing activities to enliven their education?”
Several in attendance wondered about the impact of the calendar change on athletics and extra-curricular activities. Others asked about the impacts on community daycare centers and preschools.
Some parents questioned the wisdom in re-arranging the school year without actually increasing the number of school days. Some asked whether periodical two-week breaks would be any more effective in helping struggling learners than the current summer school model.
A county social worker, who declined to give her name for this story because she works with child protection, said achievement is often linked with a child’s socio-economic standing and family well-being. She said “change is scary” and emphasized that the district should continue focusing resources on addressing the social and emotional health of its students.
Maria Harmon said she attended the meeting because her granddaughter attends Madelia Elementary. She said she supports initiatives that would raise achievement, but isn’t yet convinced that all-year school is the right option for all students.
“We need to explore all the options for our kids,” Harmon said. “But I’d need to know more about whether this is the right approach for all students before I decided if I think it’s a good idea.”
Grenell was candid in saying that research has not yet shown a definitive link between year-round school and student achievement.
But, he also said that, with Madelia schools continuing to fail Adequate Yearly Progress on standardized assessments for No Child Left Behind, a community discussion on how to raise achievement is overdue.
“It’s not worth it to alienate the people of this community just to try something out,” Grenell said. “But staying the same is not an option.”
Year-round school has gained some momentum in recent weeks, with President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan both voicing public support for the idea.
According to the National Association for Year Round Education, about 3,000 schools across the nation have a year-round calendar. Many of them are elementary schools and very few are in Minnesota.
Several so-called experiments on year-round calendars are also underway. More than 130 public schools in Chicago have adopted a modified calendar to track its effects; in Massachusetts, a program to boost classroom time with modified scheduling in two-dozen schools is now in its third year.
