T o paraphrase Yogi Berra, it’s gotten late earlier this summer.
We refer to the summer calendar and the fact that at this point there used to be several weeks left before the start of school. But that was then. In today’s world of year-round schooling, for the Pine Bluff School District anyway, school bells will start ringing on Wednesday, the last day of July.
In January, the Pine Bluff School Board voted to institute a different type of calendar. Yes, the summer break will only be a handful of weeks instead of 11, but throughout the year, when students would normally get one day off, they get several. The reasoning points to the idea that that long summer break is not good for academic achievement and that on that schedule, teachers have to spend weeks re-teaching students what they had learned before school let out in the early summer. That’s hard on everyone.
The new calendar is an exciting proposition and took some good communication with everyone — teachers, students, administrators and support staff. The idea of being off all summer with two weeks off at Christmas and a week in the fall and one in the spring has been baked into the brain and calendar for so long that it seemed like the only way education life could operate.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
And about that long summer off, wasn’t that so youngsters could help out on the farm? It’s not like a lot of that goes on any longer, but actually, according to a PBS story of a few years ago, the need to be off had less to do with agrarian needs and more to do with the heat of the summer months and lack of air conditioning.
There are several pros associated with year-round schooling and a few cons, but a read of the two suggests the upside outweighs the down, especially for Pine Bluff where low-income students stand to gain more from the change. As well, both students and teachers will avoid burnout with these mini-breaks sprinkled throughout the year, and avoiding that condition can only enhance the overall educational process. At least that’s the thinking.
Pine Bluff is jumping to the forefront on this idea as it is the only district in Jefferson County moving to a year-round school calendar. So all eyes will be on Pine Bluff to figure out how to make this work and to figure out if it does work.
Tameka Wright, principal at James Matthews Elementary School, has been in the middle of it all, getting everyone ready for the early kickoff.
“Of course, we get a shorter summer break and everything has been fast-paced, but I’m excited about the new calendar change,” Wright told The Commercial. “Every one of my students I’ve talked to, they’re excited and ready to come back to school. They’re excited about the breaks within the year. And I am ready for the change and the challenges. I’m ready for it all.”
With enthusiasm like that from the leadership class, how could this fail?