Student: Are school’s calendar options fair to all?

By Reece Thompson

There is a current debate on the acceptance or refusal of a new calendar system in the MUSD20 District. The governing board will be discussing it again at Wednesday’s meeting.

Option 1 would change the current school calendar for the entire district to a “year-round” calendar, taking away two weeks of summer vacation and using them in the fall and spring instead. The main argument made on the side of “Pro Option 1” citizens has been that it would decrease the amount of time from school, which would help students retain more information, allowing them to have less time reviewing and more time learning.

The second option is to continue using the current calendar. Many arguments have been made for this side from students, teachers and even parents. These include vacation or summer school programs that would have to be cut short due to the shortened schedule.

One point brought up by teachers that spoke at the Jan. 25 board meeting and echoed by some of the community was that some teachers could have a hard time finding work over the summer. This relates to a bigger problem. However, the question is still one that is important. Is there a solution to this problem that has not been brought up yet?

This is where the third option comes into play. One teacher that I was able to speak to actually requested a third option. When I asked them about their choice they said, “Something in the middle would work best… they are both good, however you can’t let the breaks get too long.”

They were speaking about the retention of information in students. As a student, I have seen many times that after a two-week break there is a lot of time wasted on review when it could be spent on new concepts.

When I asked students for their take, they usually went to one of two arguments for why there should be no change or very little change. One argument was that they wouldn’t be able to hold a summer job and get the money they need for the school year. The other was that because of a shortened summer, they would be unable to attend online summer school.

For many students, online school is the way to get ahead, or to even stay afloat. By cutting time out of the biggest break that students have, the options they have are cut even more.

Based on these options and interviews, I personally have concluded that either nothing should happen at all to the current District Calendar or an option three would have to be put into place in order to give an equal and fair calendar to all students. By doing this, all students would have the opportunity to get the job they need or want, they would be able to attend a summer school program, and they would have enough time to have fun.

So the question isn’t really, “Which one do we pick?” It’s, “Why should we pick one?”

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Reece Thompson is a junior at Maricopa High School.