Watson Chapel School District officials are asking community members to take a survey on how they would feel about a year-round school schedule.
On Wednesday morning, the district sent links to the online survey through text alerts and also provided the link as a splash page on its homepage. The survey will conclude on Monday.
Presently, four Arkansas school districts, including Hamburg, are operating with a year-round calendar.
The Pine Bluff School District will vote on whether to adopt a year-round slate at its Feb. 12 special meeting, when the WCSD will hold its regular meeting.
WCSD Superintendent Tom Wilson said he is unsure whether the board will vote on the calendar on that date, but he expects district officials to look at the results of the survey in the days leading up to that meeting.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“We’re looking at ways to make Watson Chapel better,” he said. “We’re looking at schedule changes to see if that will help. We’re seeking to get input from the community. We’re looking at the schedule because we’ve done this traditional schedule forever. If we look at the old schedule and give the community an opportunity, it’ll help us to be more efficient and reduce student burnout and maybe help [reduce] violence.”
Traditional school years in Arkansas begin in mid-August and conclude the week of Memorial Day, barring any makeup days scheduled at the end due to inclement weather. Under state law, districts must offer either 178 days of at least 6 hours each of instruction or at least 1,068 hours. If the longer calendar is approved, the contracted days for employees will remain the same, the WCSD says.
According to the WCSD’s survey, an early start or year-round calendar would begin in late July and end in early June, reducing the number of weeks for summer vacation from 11 to 7. The district says this would combat summer learning loss, and breaks would occur more frequently throughout the school year to prevent student and teacher burnout.
Possible breaks, the WCSD lists, include one week off each for Labor Day in September, fall break in October, and Thanksgiving in November; two weeks off for Christmas in December and one day off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January (as is presently the case); three days off for Presidents Day in February; eight days for spring break in March; two days off for Easter in April and three days off for Memorial Day in May.
Wilson said he has talked with PBSD Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree, adding both feel community safety would be a key benefit to year-round schooling. Of the 28 homicides in Pine Bluff in 2023, 11 of the victims were 18 years or younger and four of them were killed between July 11-16.
“The cost-effectiveness of that, we’d have to look at that,” Wilson said of the year-round schedule. “There are several schools looking at it to vote in for next year.”
Wilson added that the WCSD board showed interest in the potential schedule and is considering it, along with parents and students. Board members, he said, have also spoken with members of the district’s personnel policy committee, whom he said favored the measure.
“We still need to find out more information like schedules from SEARK [Southeast Arkansas College] and make sure they can offer some classes,” Wilson said. “I’m just feeling out in the community and seeing what they think about it. We want to look at safety, and also to look at the financial end of it. It may help parents schedule doctors’ appointments around a year-round schedule, and it may help to improve test scores.”
Year-round schooling is not under consideration in the White Hall School District, according to its superintendent, but an option to slightly lengthen the school day by 10 minutes will likely be presented to the board in a Feb. 13 meeting.
“We’ll just have to continue to look at calendar options. We’re always looking at what could be a good fit for our district or community,” WHSD Superintendent Gary Williams said.
Extending the school day is an alternative to a year-round calendar to allow for more possible makeup days to be built in, Williams explained. He said the WHSD is using two built-in days to help make up the five that were lost the week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day due to the winter storm, with the other three makeup days likely to be added to the end of the schedule.
White Hall’s personnel policy committee is considering that change as well, Williams added. If the district board approves, each school day may begin 5 minutes earlier and end 5 minutes later.
Williams, however, sees positives in a year-round schedule.
“I think attendance for staff and students is a big win for the district that chooses one,” he said. “It provides more frequent breaks where doctor visits and personal trips can be scheduled. The students and staff can get some time away from the school to recharge and refresh and be better prepared for their learning.
“I think you shorten the summer learning loss.”