Julie Konishi: Switch schools to year-round

Regarding the March 24 news article “Wake needs 17 additional new schools by 2022”: Wake County needs to find land for eight new schools and to build 17 new schools: 10 elementary, three middle and four high schools.

Instead of issuing bonds and raising taxes, Wake could convert all existing schools to a year-round schedule with a standardized track schedule for all schools.

Benefits include: accommodating 33 percent more students in existing facilities with existing staff; students will retain more of what they have learned without long summer breaks; teachers’ annual salaries will increase due to the additional days they must work; auxiliary services will be more inclined to offer before- and after-school programs and camps year-round if everyone is in year-round schools; and families can be guaranteed the same track for all of their school-age children.

Ideally, other Triangle school systems will convert to all year-round schools as well. We need to make better use of the facilities that we already have.

This story was originally published April 3, 2016 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Julie Konishi: Switch schools to year-round."