Students at two of the eight schools in the Columbus Municipal School District next year will be operating under an 11-month calendar, members of the district board of trustees announced during a Monday meeting.
During the meeting, the board voted unanimously to approve a “success calendar” for Sale and Stokes-Beard elementary schools. Under the calendar, set to begin with the 2009-10 school year, students at the two schools will attend 199 school days between Aug. 5 and June 17.
Students at Cook, Franklin Academy and Fairview elementary schools, Hunt Intermediate School, Lee Middle School and Columbus High School will operate under a “traditional calendar” next year. Under the traditional calendar, students will attend 181 school days between Aug. 5 and May 21.
District officials chose to implement the 11-month calendar at Sale and Stokes-Beard after conducting a two-month poll of teachers and parents at Hunt Intermediate and all elementary schools in the district.
“You have to have a certain threshold of parents and teachers who are willing to commit to this type of program for it to be successful,” said Superintendent Del Phillips. “Sale and Stokes-Beard were the two schools that said they would be committed to this calendar right now.”
At Sale Elementary International Studies Magnet School, 100 percent of teachers and 98 percent of parents said they would be in favor of the calendar. Polls at Stokes-Beard Communication and Technology Magnet School garnered a 98-percent approval rate among teachers and an 85 percent approval rate from parents.
At Cook Elementary Fine Arts Magnet School, Fairview Elementary Aerospace and Science Magnet School, Franklin Elementary Medical Sciences and Wellness Magnet School and Hunt, percentages ranged from 91 percent to 66 percent for teachers and from 89 percent to 59 percent for parents.
“You would do more harm than good by forcing everyone to do it,” Phillips said shortly after board member Julie Jordan called some of the calendar”s approval ratings “disappointing.”
Schools ”satisfactory,” ”low performing”
Implementation of the 11-month calendar is part of a plan to raise academic performance throughout the district, Phillips said.
Under new performance-assessment criteria to be introduced next year in Mississippi, all elementary and middle schools in the district would fall under the “satisfactory” or “low performing” categories in language arts and mathematics when using the district”s scores from the 2007-08 Mississippi Curriculum Test 2.
Also according to the 2007-08 test results, more than 60 percent of the district”s third-through-eighth-grade students would be classified in the “minimum” or “basic” levels in the mathematics or language arts categories when using the state”s new criteria.
“You”ve got four categories they will use to classify each student based on their MCT2 scores: minimum, basic, proficient and advanced,” said Phillips, adding the 11-month calendar will help students better retain information between grades. “If you send 65 percent of students to high school with a basic or minimum understanding of one of those subjects, it”s going to be a rough ride for them.
“Sixty percent in minimum or basic? That”s not going to happen. That”s not the expectation we are going to have for our children,” Phillips added. “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing for us is academic performance.”
At Sale and Stokes-Beard, students will have two success academies during the year. One will be held on school days from Sept. 29 to Oct. 9, and the second will run from March 22 to April 1.
The 18 success days will be used to aid students who have “fallen behind” and to help other students “move up the ladder” in areas taught earlier in the year.
“It”s just as important to move those with high test scores up the ladder as it is to help those who are behind get caught up,” said Phillips. “Teachers could use those days to magnify the magnet theme or anything else they wanted to. The potential for those extra days is infinite.”
”Handicapping our children”
Since Phillips introduced the 11-month calendar idea a few months ago, he has received much feedback from parents concerned about the change, he said.
“One of the first things a lot of people say to me is ”why would you punish the students by making them go to school longer?”” said Phillips. “If you go to other places in Asia or Europe, they won”t call it punishment. They will call it an opportunity.
“With the globalization of the economy, I don”t know what our children will be doing in 15 years, but I can tell you it will be different than the way we”ve all done it,” Phillips added. “Our children won”t be competing for jobs with kids from New Hope, I can promise you that. We”re handicapping our children if we tell them that too much is bad for you.”
Implementation of the calendar at the two schools is expected to cost about $375,000, and likely will be paid for entirely by federal stimulus funds. District officials during the next few years will track MCT2 scores and compare the performances of Stokes-Beard and Sale to those operating under the traditional calendar.
Because the district recently completed the first round of its magnet school lottery, most positions at Sale and Stokes-Beard are already occupied. However, openings may appear during the second lottery next month, Phillips said.
“There are a limited number of seats still left in those two schools if parents wanted to enter the second lottery in June,” Phillips said. “However, there is no guarantee that a student will get a seat at one of those schools, and that could mean they lose their spot at the school they”re currently at if they entered the second round of the lottery.
“There”s not a lot of room for movement at all, so I have to warn parents of that,” Phillips added. “Of course, it works both ways. If a parent or a student wanted to opt out of a seat at Sale or Stokes-Beard, they could enter the second lottery as well.”
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