Summer break in Crystal Lake, once a time for students to work the fields of family farms and more recently a cherished vacation time, may soon be a thing of the past in a school district grappling with some very modern problems.
Confronting overcrowding brought on by the spread of suburbia and classrooms that seem to fill up as quickly as they can be built, Crystal Lake school officials are considering sending children to school year-round.
The decision about whether to draw a 12-month calendar, a reality in more schools nationwide these days, is often long and arduous.
”You may solve one problem, but there are other problems you`ll have to deal with,” said Supt. Richard Bernotas of District 47.
The far northwest suburban district might save money and space with the new calendar, he said.
But it also might create a logistical nightmare: Could working parents find child care during the new vacations? Would teachers and staff adjust to the new, more complicated schedules?
The proposal calls for students in the seven elementary schools and two junior high schools to be placed in four tracks.
Schedules would rotate, with three tracks on and one off. The students would attend classes in 9- or 12-week cycles and then the pupils and teachers would get 3 weeks off.
The school board is expected to decide on the proposal next spring, after public hearings.
One southwest suburban district already has used and then abandoned an all-year schedule.
Valley View Unit District 365 in Will County used all-year schooling from 1970 to 1980, said Emmie Dunn, administrative assistant to the superintendent. The district began operating year-round because it couldn`t keep up with the influx of students during a booming period for Bolingbrook.
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”We returned to the 9-month calendar in the 1980-81 school year because of the declining population of students,” Dunn said. ”We started to have a lot of empty space in the school buildings. It was very expensive to run these schools year-round-for instance, to air-condition them in the summer months.” Nationally, the usually controversial idea of getting rid of a three-month summer vacation in favor of more frequent, shorter ones is gaining favor with a growing number of overcrowded schools.
In all, an estimated 1,349,835 public school students in 204 school districts scattered around 23 states go to class year-round, according to the National Association for Year-Round Education.
That`s up from 1980, when 196,809 public school students in 69 school districts and 17 states participated in year-round education, according to Hope Coleman, a spokeswoman for the group.
The San Diego-based group fields dozens of calls each week from school officials seeking information.
”In every case that we`re aware of where schools have gone to year-round (classes), there has been no decline in scores,” said Norm Kirschenbaum, past president of the association and assistant superintendent of a suburban Los Angeles district with the program.
Some of those districts have reported a boost in students` achievement because they avoid a long summer away from class.
Students and parents in Crystal Lake so far have mixed feelings about the concept.
”I like having (vacation) all at once,” said Adam Thompson, 13, an 8th grader at Lundahl Junior High School. ”I`d just rather have a whole lot of time off rather than just three weeks.”
But his mother, Barb Thompson said, ”To me, year-round school is better than building another school” if it will keep taxes down.
The Crystal Lake Elementary Teachers Association is studying the proposal and has not yet taken a position. But Barbara Plate, vice president of the union, said teachers are concerned about scheduling issues.
”This would limit the amount of time teachers would be able to pursue advance degree programs,” Plate said. ”Teachers might have different schedules than their own children and family members.”
Also, she said, ”The entire contract would have to be renogotiated for the extended period of time in which teachers and staff would have to be paid.”
Educators point out the long summer off was designed years ago to give students in an agrarian society time to work the fields-hardly a consideration today.
Although the Crystal Lake school district is one of the relatively few in the Chicago area in which a smattering of students still live on farms, they are a small minority in a community that has become one of the fastest growing suburbs in metropolitan Chicago.
In just five years, enrollment in Crystal Lake schools has grown to nearly 6,000 from about 4,700.
That, compounded by budget shortfalls and funding restrictions imposed by the state, has school officials searching for creative alternatives to building more schools.
Because the pupils would be divided into groups with staggered schedules, the buildings could be used all the time instead of sitting empty during vacations, allowing more children to be taught in the same facilities.
A preliminary report issued this week by a district committee said the school system could save construction costs under a year-round calendar because it would need to build only one school instead of two. But school officials also could face new bills for installing air conditioning in buildings and buses and hiring more staff, among other things, the report said.
The Crystal Lake proposal, like most others now in place, would not increase the number of days childen would attend classes in a calendar year.
In the report, a district committee said startup costs associated with year-round schooling could run as high as $9 million. That is still about $4 million less than the second proposal to build two new schools.
But the report also addressed the family and community impact of year-round schooling. Because the community lacks day care for older children and activities in the fall and winter at the park district, some students on break might be left unsupervised.
”Now it would be incumbent on the park district to build additional facilities” to accommodate the students, said Bernie VanHam, chairman of the committee studying year-round education.
”Will this save money? My best guess is it will save taxpayers on the school portion of their taxes. But it may take money out of the same pocket to build more (park district) facilities.”
At Gale Community Academy on Chicago`s North Side, one of the few public schools in the state to try year-round education, teachers report a slight increase in standardized test scores, which they attribute in part to the new system.
Pupils who are behind, administrators say, can use the frequent breaks to catch up. Each child goes to class for two months, followed by a three-week break, then another two months. The breaks are staggered so children attend classes on four different cycles.
Parents and staff have adjusted well to the new scheduling, said Gale Principal Edis Snyder. Even nearby parks have shifted their programs for students on break.
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And, Snyder said, as educational opportunities rose, costs and crowding went down.
”Our total budget costs went up 2 1/2 percent. That`s a great deal less than building a school, busing children to other facilities and renting space,” she said.