Stop Modified Calendar at Elk Elementary Center

As many of you are aware, several schools in Kanawha County area have switched to a modified calendar and it seems now that the Elkview area is the new target for the modified schedule. In the spring of 2003, meetings were held at the Elk Center to discuss the new schedule but unfortunately, parents concerns were not addressed. In the fall of 2003, a meeting was held with the teachers to get the support of the teachers, but the school system has still not met with the parents again to address our concerns.

The purpose of this web site is to inform parents and other citizens on an ongoing basis. 

The schools are incorporating "public" engagement principles into school and district governance, and using them to implement school reform ideas and employing them at the teacher-parent-classroom level.  They are bringing policy decisions into the "community", using small groups to create "safe", "informed" discussions and asking citizens to take an "active" role in problem solving.  

While we have been active for some time now, the web site is just getting started.  Here are some web sites that I recommend for general information on year-round school.

• Academics, the Year-Round Calendar, and the Color of the School Buses by Christopher Newland, Ph.D.
  
  

• The Impact on Non-Custodial Children by Judge Michael D. Jones
  
  

• Year Round Education: The Untold Story.
  
  

• What People Are Saying About Year-Round Schools by Robert Rosenfeld, Attorney
  
  

• MY CHILD STILL BELONGS TO ME! by Tom Krause, Coach
  
  

• School Reform Proposals: The Research Evidence
  Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU)
  Education Policy Studies Laboratory
  College of Education
  Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
  Box 872411
  Arizona State University
  Tempe, AZ 85287-2411
  January 2002
  (This links to Section 4, Time For School: Its Duration and Allocation by Gene V Glass)
  

• Origins Of Year-Round Schooling  (So, they told you our school calendar is agrarian. You may want to read this!)
  California Educational Research Cooperative. 
  School of Education 
  University of California, Riverside 
  
  

• Academic Impact of Year Round Schooling, An Annotated Bibliography compiled by M. C. Newland, Ph.D.
  

• Year-Round Education: The Reject List by Florida Columnist, Billee Bussard
  YRE advocates cite thousands of schools that are currently on a year-round calendar nation wide.  What they fail to report are the schools that were once on year-round education and have dumped it, and those schools who looked at it and had the wisdom to reject the idea before implementation.  I have personally noticed two trends.  1) Schools tend to remain on the calendar until parents band together and throw it out after an average of 5 to 7 years, and 2) Implementers get out fast (about 1 year) after inflicting their community with YRE for the sake of their resumes.
  

• Summer Matters, Jacksonville Florida
  
  

• Wes Walker's Homepage: Opposition to Year Round School - Phoenix, Arizona
  
  

• STOP YEAR-ROUND SCHOOL IN AUBURN - Auburn, Alabama
  
  

• British Columbia Teacher's Federation  
  Particularly, Do Year Round Schools Improve Student Learning?, An Annotated Bibliography and Synthesis of the Research, by Charlie Naylor, May 1995. They are all excellent reports.