Four Modesto schools still on year-round calendar

By Michelle Hatfield
mhatfield@modbee.com

last updated: October 11, 2008 01:12:56 AM

As school districts across the region move from year-round to traditional calendars, four elementary schools in south and west Modesto still are on the 12-month schedule.

The cause is overflowing enrollment. The four campuses are Fairview, Kirschen, Martone and Tuolumne. Each campus enrolls more than 700 students, with Fairview nearing 900. Three in four students are at school at any given time because of the year-round schedule, but the campuses are using plenty of portables to house students.

Education experts and studies caution against overcrowded campuses and year-round calendars, saying they can lead to an unequal education. Although some research supports year-round school, arguing that having shorter breaks helps students retain what they've learned, most educators say the only reason to be on year-round schedule is limited room for students.

Instead of three months off during summer, year-round school calendars typically have several breaks of three to four weeks throughout the year. This allows overcrowded schools to rotate students on and off tracks so that only about three-fourths of students and teachers are on campus at one time.

Some families use the breaks to schedule vacations. Many Latino families take extended trips to Mexico during the Christmas holidays. One track gives students all of December off school. Without that extended break, students would miss instruction and schools would lose state funding from the drop in attendance.

Most campuses solve this issue by scheduling a modified traditional calendar -- where students still have a long summer off, but winter break is three or four weeks long instead of the standard two weeks.

Modesto's Bret Harte, Burbank, Franklin, Marshall and Robertson Road elementary schools observe that schedule, as well as schools in Empire and Salida.

Maria Garcia is the parent of a preschooler and first-grader at Kirschen Elementary School in south Modesto. She and another parent at Kirschen said year-round school is hard for their kids who hate to be in school when they'd rather be playing outside during the summer, but it's not difficult for the parents.

"For me it's better, because I think they learn when they're going to school year-round," Garcia said in Spanish.

Other Kirschen parents said they weren't concerned about overcrowding or the school's four year-round tracks.

Enrollment at Modesto City Schools is declining. Though schools in west and south Modesto continue to have large student enrollments, the four elementaries on year-round schedules have 171 fewer students than the same period last year.

Officials may look at redrawing attendance boundaries to more evenly distribute students, said Pat Portwood, Modesto City Schools associate superintendent of academic learning community A.

Those changes can be controversial, but also difficult because many families move throughout the school year, making student enrollment a moving target, Portwood said.

Because only three-fourths of students and teachers are on campus at a time, Portwood argued that schools are not so full that the size hurts student learning and that class sizes remain small as in schools on traditional schedules.

"They all get the same education. The children get breaks, small increments of breaks (throughout the year) so there's less loss of information," Portwood said. But she also said the goal was to get all district schools onto a traditional calendar.

Children attending year-round schools are mostly Latino and tend to be somewhat poorer than the average, according to a 2007 Ohio State University study. The report reviewed data from 748 public schools and 244 private schools across the nation.

Overcrowding also can add tension to teachers and students, said Bruce Fuller, University of California at Berkeley professor of education and public policy and director of the Policy Analysis for California Education.

"(Overcrowding) can be more stressful, which tends to undercut academic achievement," he said.

One answer is to build a new elementary school in west or south Modesto, but at a price tag between $15 million or more, that's one of the more expensive options. And, with current declining enrollment, the district might be looking at redrawing attendance boundary lines or closing a school in the next few years.

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada contributed to this report.

Bee staff writer Michelle Hatfield can be reached at mhatfield@modbee.com or 578-2339.

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