Charlotte-area schools might go year-round

Double sessions also considered

Even if voters approve a school-construction bond package in November, skyrocketing growth could force some Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools to switch to year-round classes or double sessions in 2008.

The ideas for squeezing more students into crowded schools have surfaced previously, including after voters rejected the 2005 bond package. But the school district launched its most thorough review of the proposals after Superintendent Peter Gorman's 100-day plan called for slashing 15 percent of the district's nearly 1,300 mobile classrooms by 2010.

Recommendations would likely come in late summer or early fall -- as the campaign for a record bond request hits the homestretch.

School district leaders say the controversial schedules would be a last resort, and that the timing of the study isn't a scare tactic to boost support for the bond. Officials say they're analyzing options now so parents deciding where to enroll their children in 2008 would have plenty of warning.

Other school systems have made the switch. While CMS has enough students in mobile classrooms to form one of North Carolina's 20 largest districts, fast-growing Wake County already has almost a third of its schools on year-round calendars.

Says schools construction official Mike Raible: "Shouldn't we at least get enough information to say, 'No, that's not the way we want to go,' or, 'Yes, in isolated circumstances, that is the way."'

Some parents and school board members applaud the creative look at coping with crowding. Jim Buchan said he decided to move to Union County from Mecklenburg for several reasons, including smaller schools.

Buchan said his son attended a year-round charter school last year. Teachers like the calendar's shorter, more frequent breaks, he said, because students remember more of what they've learned.

"I'm for using the buildings as much as we can use the buildings," Buchan said. "Not everybody is going to agree with me. What are their ideas? Just spend more money?"

Others are taking a wait-and-see approach.

"Parents want to know that they are not suffering from CMS's mistakes of poor planning," said Angela Huggins, whose children attend one of the most crowded schools, Mountain Island Elementary.

"They [district leaders] would really need to convince parents that this is a positive alternative."

Wake County gave 30,500 families a choice for next year: Attend schools with year-round calendars or the district would find another assignment. About 95 percent of them chose year-round, said Caroline Massengill, who helps oversee the program.

"The hardest part for people is that this is a change," said Massengill, who ran Wake's first year-round school in 1989. "My experience was that when families went and joined that school and were on that calendar, they really liked it. And their children liked it."

Comparing calendars

About 400 school systems use alternative calendars in roughly 2,700 schools -- public, private and charter, according to the nonprofit National Association for Year-Round Education. That includes six in Union County, one in Rock Hill and another in Chester, S.C.

Here's a look at how the calendars typically work and some pros and cons:

YEAR-ROUND SCHOOLS

Schools get divided into, say, four groups of students, and three attend at once. Students typically take classes for nine weeks, then get three-week breaks.

PROS:

* Students don't forget as much as they might over longer, summer vacations, and schools can use the shorter breaks to catch kids up before they fall too far behind. Duke University's Harris Cooper analyzed research from almost 60 school districts that use the calendars and found a "slight" increase in test scores.