What's the hurry?

There are some important concerns about the work of the Year-Round School committee so far:

1. There is not enough time for citizen input. The process is moving forward too quickly. Dr. Freeman and Dr. Martin have said that the final Committee conclusions on Year-Round School and Dr. Martin's recommendation will be given to the School Board in December,1998. A public meeting is scheduled (no date given) for October 1998; however, there will not be enough time (Oct - Nov) for parents to become informed, AND there will not be enough time for the Committee to respond/investigate/consider issues brought up by parents. What's the big hurry? Why wait over a year before getting the public involved and then rush to a conclusion in less than 2 months. The Citizen Input stage of the Committee work is way too late in the process - it should be at least 6 months in advance of any stated decision date, if not 12 months. It's time to get our educated citizenry involved, not ignored! Why, even the local PTA presidents have been virtually unaware of the system's consideration of Year-Round School until recently, and they haven't had time to hear from parents and respond.

2. The issue should be, why should a Year-Round calendar be adopted by the Auburn City School System? Instead, we are considering the implementation of an alternative calendar for the school year that has had no proven significant educational advantage, and that has had inconclusive and disruptive results in many other school systems around the country. Citizens of the Auburn Community need to be seriously involved in any decision for such a major change in the way our schools are run.

3. Currently only 3% of America's schools are on some form of Year-Round School calendar and only 1.6% of these use a single-track Year-Round system. The Year-Round School Committee has had considerable input from school systems in this very small group. They have heard nothing from Administrators/personnel/teachers/parents who live/work in schools that have tried single-track Year-Round School, and then returned to a Traditional 9-month calendar after a significant number of years experience. Finding such speakers would not be hard, since many hundreds of schools followed this path, returning to a Traditional 9-month calendar after experiencing the difficulties inherent in Year-Round Education. Why is the Auburn City School's Administration in such a rush to repeat the mistakes of others?

4. There is no conclusive evidence that Year-Round School always improves learning. In fact, many research studies have found that various forms of Year-Round Education result in no significant improvement in student test scores.

5. At a time when Auburn University is going to semesters, does it make sense for Auburn City Schools to go to quarters? If the alternative school year calendars of other school systems are any indication, most of the breaks in a Year-Round School calendar for Auburn K-12 will not be compatible with the breaks in the University semester calendar. A Year-Round School calendar will also not allow faculty to take their family along on summer-long (2-3 month) sabbatical, research and study trips.

All these concerns and many others need to be addressed by the School System Administration, the Year-Round School Committee and the citizens of Auburn before any decision concerning Year-Round School is made.

GET INVOLVED in the STOP YEAR-ROUND SCHOOL CITIZENS' GROUP