More kids in less space
Tuesday's lead editorial.
Picture an elementary school where enrollment is 1,000 but classrooms hold only 750. In Guilford County, that doesn’t require much imagination.
In most circumstances, this overstuffed school scenario would put the extra 250 children in trailers. Eventually the school might be expanded or even replaced with a larger facility, but either option would cost millions of dollars.
There’s another way. The school could convert to a multi-track year-round schedule. This plan would divide the student body into four groups of 250 each and put them on a rotation of nine weeks in school and three weeks off, but staggered so that three groups are in and one is out at any given time.
There it is! Because a group of 250 students is always out for its three-week break, the school has room for the other 750. No more need for trailers, or an expensive expansion. Furthermore, the common areas — cafeteria, media center, bathrooms, gym, auditorium, playgrounds — are always one-fourth less crowded than they were before.
North Carolina’s fastest-growing school system, Wake County, adopted this multi-track year-round schedule for some of its schools several years ago to maximize classroom space, but not enough parents volunteered to send their children. So the school board assigned students, by the thousands. Several parents and an advocacy organization sued and won. A year ago, Superior Court Judge Howard Manning ruled the board is authorized by law to operate year-round schools only “on a voluntary consensual basis.”
Wrong, a panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals said unanimously last week. The General Assembly has given local school boards a “broad grant of authority,” the opinion written by Judge Martha Geer said. One relevant statute provides, about as clearly as it’s possible to express, that “the authority of each board of education in the matter of assignment of children to the public schools shall be full and complete, and its decision as to assignment of any child to any school shall be final.”
That’s coupled with the board’s further power to operate schools on a year-round schedule, the court said.
The only restraint on an elected board in setting policies like this, Geer wrote, citing an earlier Supreme Court ruling, “is at the ballot box.”
Year-round schools aren’t popular with everyone, and school board members who force them on families might be voted out of office. But, despite last week’s 55 percent support for $457 million in Guilford County school bonds, there are limits to the public’s ability to afford new and larger schools.
So, any means of finding more classroom space for children without new construction or more trailers must be considered. Last week’s court ruling assures school boards they have the authority to make assignments to year-round schools.
Really, that’s no more severe than the power they already use to put children in trailers or overcrowded schools. Can school leaders picture a better way?
Comments (2)
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Poor Guilford. Why are your leaders always eager to try failed Wake County ideas? Don't be so sure that you can vote your school board out of office if they disappoint you, either. In Wake, we are stuck with SB Members elected by district, not county-wide. This means that if a majority of SB members want to gang up on the families living in outlying districts by assigning those children hither and yon, they have free reign to do so - with no consequences.
Posted on May 14, 2008 10:59 AM
I'm envisioning a day when our children emerge from the birth canal and a member of the school administration or board is going to be there to take custody.
Until that happens, though, my children are my responsibility and I WILL have some say-so about their education...and when that occurs. The entire flare-up in Wake County on this issue is about MANDATORY year-round school. That means NO CHOICE for parents or students whose lifestyle that might not suit...board says so, and it happens. A board with any degree of common sense would have broadened the opportunities for the myriad families that DESIRE a year-round schedule. At the same time, they should respect those who want a traditional track. The two CAN coexist. It would be an interesting turn of events in Guilford County, which seems to develop alternative schools and curricula at the drop of a hat to accommodate every possible scenario and educational whim, to provide such choice and then demand that students attend a year-round school. I sincerely hope that does not happen.
One of my children, a product of the GCS who attended on a traditional calendar just graduated from Duke University with honors. He wasn't in one of the touted IB programs nor was he an attender of magnet schools. Many of his elementary and high school years required that he matriculate (gasp!) in "trailers." My point would be that hard work from dedicated students, teachers, site administrators and parents is the surest pathway to successful schools. Not where. Not when. Mandating a year-round calendar is a sure way to disgruntle a lot of folks, and it would be a huge mistake.
Posted on May 14, 2008 12:26 PM