VICTORY!
Year-Round School defeated in Auburn
Opelika * Auburn News* THE NEWSPAPER OF EAST ALABAMA*12/16/98
Article: YRS - It's over! Martin proposes minor changes
By: Julie Shelley-BassOpelika-Auburn News
The year-round school debate in Auburn has been put to rest, but not without some changes to the current school year.
Dr. Mick Martin proposed minor changes to the Auburn City Schools calendar last night, and the school board unanimously approved the changes to the current school year, managing to evade an alternative calendar label.
"I've learned I didn't do some things very well," Dr. Martin said, evaluating his personal involvement in the alternative calendar issue.
"My final recommendation is this: That I recommend against extending the school year or implementing year-round school," he said.
Dr. Martin cited "too much divisiveness in our community" as his primary reason for not recommending an alternative calendar.
"In spite of all our efforts of four months of probably the most intense debate, 70 percent of parents and about that number of our community was opposed to the idea," he said. "You can't sell an idea of this magnitude with that kind of split."
Financial reasons also factored into the decision, Dr. Martin said.
The board unanimously voted in favor of Dr. Martin's recommendation.
After the board's approval, Dr. Martin began a second recommendation pertaining to minor changes in the current calendar.
"I'm prepared to recommend a calendar," he said after his initial recommendation against an alternative calendar.
Dr. Martin cited the need to schedule final exams before the Christmas break and a break for faculty as the determining factors in making a decision on his proposed calendar.
"The issue here is to conclude the first semester's work and give staff, students and parents a clean break," he said.
A one-day break, scheduled for Monday, Oct. 11, occurs between the first and second grading periods. Dr. Martin said the extra day was planned to give staff and "those who need a break" an opportunity to relax before the beginning of the next term.
The apparent need to correlate the Auburn University and ACS calendar also factored into Dr. Martin's decision.
"The calendar I present matches the (AU) spring break, day for day, the same time period," he said.
The recommended calendar allows the fourth nine weeks to end during the fourth week in May, allowing International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement students "maximum classroom instruction prior to national exams.",
He expressed the desire to put the issue at rest as soon as possible.
"I think closure on this issue is paramount tonight," Dr. Martin said.
The board unanimously passed the calendar, which takes effect with the start of the 1999-2000 school year.
Under the calendar, school will begin Monday, Aug. 16, 1999 and conclude Thursday, May 25, 2000. The calendar has 175 student days and 183 staff days -- the same as the current school year.
Auburn City Schools appointed a committee earlier this year whose specific function was to study the alternative calendar issue. The group, comprised of 51 members, met regularly and participated in ACS alternative calendar survey.
An Auburn citizens' group in opposition to the implementation of a year-round calendar was formed shortly after the calendar committee. The citizens' group met regularly and voiced their resistance to a calendar change through the use of yard signs and radio commercials.
Public meetings concerning the alternative calendar proposal were held at each school within the Auburn school system during October.
A telephone survey and a written survey were administered to Auburn residents in November, and results were taken into consideration by Dr. Martin in making his recommendation .
ACS considered the alternative calendar option in 1993, and appointed a similar committee to explore and make recommendations on an alternate school year.
ACS voted against making the transition to year-round school that same year.
The Auburn Bulletin12/19/98
Article: Board stops YRS, starts new calendar
By: ELIOTT C. MCLAUGHLIN Auburn Bulletin
A standing-room-only crowd packed the Auburn High School multimedia center Tuesday to hear the long-awaited superintendent's report on the year-round school issue.
While the calendar is general ly accepted by the YRS protesters, some have a few problems with the calendar, including the means in which it was approved.
Auburn City School Superintendent Mick Martin first allowed Mike Machen of Machen McChesney & Chastain and Gerald Johnson, director of the Capital Survey Research Center, present the results of written and telephone polls.
Machen said his accounting agency collected and counted the written surveys. His results showed that 41.4 percent of those polled approved a calendar change, 51.5 percent did not and 7.1 percent were non-compliant.
Johnson, who directs the center which acts as the polling authority for the Alabama Education Association, said the results of the phone survey differ when broken into demographic categories.
The center completed 667 surveys, of which, 40 percent said they oppose a change, 50 percent supported it and 10 percent said they did not have enough information. However, these results were compiled from three different levels of opposition or approval.
Johnson broke down the results for the board: Those with out children, those of low income and ACS employees showed pluralities supporting a calendar change.
Professionals, Auburn University employees and non ACS employees were generally in opposition. Breaking down the results also showed most of those polled opposed Calendars C and D, but supported A and B.
In addition, the poll showed that AU employees and professionals thought it was important final exams were scheduled before the break and that AU and ACS calendars were compatible.
The room became silent as Martin prepared to make his recommendation to the board.
"If I have prayed through this process, I have prayed for wisdom," he said. "I didn't do some things very well.
"I didn't protect my subordinates. The lightning rod in this should have been me. It's the role of the superintendent.
"I'm not sure I brought honor to the board."
Martin thanked the staff, board, his family, students, the media, the committee, the pollsters and even the YRS naysayers who made their voices heard repeatedly through out the process.
"I'm proud of them. I'm pleased we have a system that does that for children," Martin said.
His final recommendation? "I recommend against extending the school year," he said.
He cited divisiveness among the community, 70 percent of the community being opposed and the proposal not being financially feasible as reasons for his decision.
He then recommended a calendar in which finals are finished before the Christmas break, the spring break is congruent with AU's and advanced students will be able to finish their coursework before national exams.
"I think closure on this issue is paramount tonight," Martin said.
However, some parents were concerned about the lack of community input sought for the new calendar.
Two leaders in the YRS protest who wished to remain anonymous said they were generally pleased with the decision. They just wish they had had a chance to comment on the new calendar.
David Elton, another front-runner in the fight to stop YRS, said it was "a pretty good recommendation," but he felt Martin's calendar mimicked the Calendar A option.
He added that he thought the ACS board merely offered "lip service for seeking community input.
"The parents of Auburn like to be heard, but if they can't be heard, they won't be a benefit to anybody.
"I think he should've stuck with this year's calendar."
Lynda Rainer, ACS public relations director, said, "We probably got more input from the teachers, citizens and parents than ever before.
"The board felt so many things had gotten out of hand, and we needed to have closure.
"You're not going to please everybody, but you don't want a majority of your parents angry," she said.
As for Martin's proposal being close to Calendar A, Rainer said, "Calendar A is strikingly similar to the traditional calendar, too."
She said the surveys showed the majority wanted the breaks changed as they were.
"He did what was best for all the children of Auburn," Rainer said.
ACS held a special session Thursday to address a disciplinary matter of two students caught with marijuana and to amend the approved calendar.
Opelika * Auburn News* THE NEWSPAPER OF EAST ALABAMA*12/17/98
Article: Getting back to the business of education
Auburn City Schools is get ting on with business as usual now that the year-round school debate is settled.
The slightly altered calendar passed at Tuesday night's school board meeting hasn't garnered much public response, according to ACS officials.
"Today's been quiet," Assistant Superintendent Suzanne Freeman .said Wednesday. "It's been pretty quiet on my end."
Lynda Rainer, Auburn City Schools' public relations director, said, "Some teachers that I've talked to were maybe a little disappointed but, once again, it's been really quiet."
However, both officials said one question has been asked regularly: "Gee, aren't you glad it's over?"
The end of the debate about whether to change to an alternate calendar allows time for the school system to fully develop current projects and start new ones within the next year.
"I've heard a good response about moving the semester," Dr. Freeman said. "That's been positively received."
Moving semester exams to before the Christmas break was part of minor changes in the modified traditional school calendar passed Tuesday night.
ACS will undertake many new projects in the coming year, and a specific target of the system will be at-risk children.
"One thing that's been obvious is we all recognize we have at-risk children," Dr. Freeman said. "I don't think our community was aware we have the number that we have.
"We are going to continue to look at programs and find out what works," she said.
An area that will continue to receive emphasis for all students is reading instruction. "We think that's really important," Dr. Freeman said.
Emphasis in curriculum will be placed on mathematics and reading, she said.
"We've really started to pick up in our math curriculum," she said, citing tougher state graduation exam requirements as reason for more intense curriculum.
Teachers in grades 6-12 math and English/language arts classes will meet four times this year to prepare for the new graduation exam.
"We're trying to make sure our kids are truly prepared for the 21st century," Dr. Freeman said.
Auburn Early Education Center has been nominated by the state Department of Education to be a national Blue Ribbon School, and Auburn High School is currently working on its application for the program.
"That's a pretty significant honor," Dr. Freeman said.
Construction will remain a top priority for the school system.
"We want to get Yarbrough (Elementary) completed," Dr. Freeman said. "Playgrounds are another initiative we have started."
Permission was requested for bids on playground equipment at last night's board meeting, she said.
Dr. Freeman added that the money for playground projects has been budgeted for elementary schools in the system.
The school system generally plans construction projects 10 years in advance, she said.
ACS has evaluated programs for at-risk children over the last several years, Dr. Freeman said.
Ms. Rainer said the ACS system is the state model for at-risk student programs, a fact of which they were not previously aware.
"We've had other school systems call us and say, 'You've been referred as the model of the state. We'd like to see your plan,"' Dr. Freeman said.
ACS has several programs targeted for at-risk children.
Title I, a federally-funded program, involves math and parent-involvement activities for students who qualify. Auburn Early Education Center is currently a Title I school, Dr. Freeman said.
Dr. Freeman said the system also focuses on the social aspects affecting at risk children.
"We use referral to Big Brother/Big Sister and Department of Human Resources," she said. "East Alabama Mental Health does some on-site counseling with families for us."
Dr. Freeman said the system is specifically looking at student conflict resolution and school safety programs.
Technology in the city's schools has already advanced this year, with each classroom already receiving two new computers this school term.
By Friday, each school should be hooked up to the Internet, Dr. Freeman said.
"We're really excited about ... really opening up communication for our children and our teachers," Dr. Freeman said. "We feel like they've been deprived of the Internet."
Teacher training conferences will be held in January 1999 to familiarize instructors with the Internet, she said.
"For our children, the possibilities are endless with the things they can do with technology," Dr. Freeman said.
Career technical, or vocational, classes are already in place within the school system.
One of the technical programs currently offered to students at Auburn High is a multimedia class.
"We have some pretty high-level video equipment and they're learning different ways to make a video," Ms. Rainer said. "What makes the program so nice is that we have kids that have not always been real excited about some of their courses, and this is some thing they're really excited about.
"Any way you can reach children is always exciting," she said.
Editorial: Time for community to work together
After months of divisiveness the alternative calendar debate has been put to rest in Auburn.
After being bombarded by signs, letters, e-mails, faxes and calls, Auburn City School's Superintendent Dr. Mick Martin conceded defeat.
Only minutes after learning his mother had died, Dr. Martin faced members of the Stop Year Round School in Auburn group and other residents who attended Tuesday night's school board meeting to find out whether he would recommend the school board adopt an alternative calendar.
The announcement that he would recommend against adopting an alternative calendar was greeted by applause from the group, many of whom have spent a large amount of time and money opposing the proposal in its planning stage.
Dr. Martin rose above the controversy and cited "too much divisiveness in our community" and the expense of implementing an alternate calendar schedule as reasons for his decision.
"You can't sell an idea of this magnitude with that kind of split," Dr. Martin said, stating about 70 per cent of the community was opposed to the change.
Dr. Martin has been listening to the debate and he has listened well. His insightfulness that, despite what the best calendar choice might be, the smartest decision at this time was to end the debate is to be commended.
At the same meeting, Dr. Martin recommended minor but constructive changes to the Auburn City Schools' calendar. The changes mean students don't have to study for final exams during Christmas break and the spring break has been matched to Auburn University's break, something university employees have consistently sought.
Under the approved calendar for the 1999-2000 academic year, school will begin Aug. 16, will conclude May 25, and has thc same number of student days as the current school year.
After this recommendation, several of those attending the meeting banged their fists on the table and laughed. One YRS supporter seemed appalled that any changes at all would be made to thc school calendar.
Dr. Martin has said it is time to put an end to the debate. "I think closure on this issue is paramount tonight," Dr. Martin said Tuesday. We agree.
Dr. Martin has been gracious in the defeat of the alternative calendar proposal. He has listened to what the Stop YRS group has said and has tried to hear the opinions of those who were less vocal.
He considered the effects an alternative calendar would have on the community and has chosen not to pursue the debate.
Auburn is a community that has strongly supported its educational system and its community leaders. The divisiveness caused by this issue has gone far enough. It's time to put the community back together to work toward one common goal -- the best education and quality of life for our families.