Understanding Year Round Schools

Understanding Year Round Schools

Year Round schools have been around a while now (15+ years) and there are still a lot of questions and concerns from parents and newcomers to the area.  It is a system that most did not grow up with and find as a foreign idea. Most people that move to the Triangle or have kids getting ready to enter the Wake County Public School System often want to know why we would choose to have schools go year round? What benefit do the students get from going year round?  What benefit does the school system get out of it?

There is definitely a purpose for Year Round schools and not only benefits for the students and the school system but the teachers as well.

How do Year Round Schools work?  Year Round schools were created to help alleviate overcrowding.  Let's, for example, assume that a school can handle a population of 1000 students but there are 1300 students that need to be serviced by the school.  At a traditional school, this would really create a problem with overcrowded classrooms. In the year round model, this is no problem. Year Round schools break their students up into calendar schedules called "tracks".  In the year round system, 3 of the 4 tracks are in school at one time while the remaining track is “tracked out”. At the beginning of the school year (early to mid July), tracks 1-3 begin school. Track 4 is still on summer vacation.  They attend school like this for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks, track 3 then “tracks out” and will be on break for 3 weeks. At this same time, track 4 students “track in” and start school for the year. Now Tracks 1,2 and 4 are in school and will remain for another 3 weeks when track 3 will come back in and track 2 will “track out”.  They continue to follow this rotation so that each track is in for approximately 9 weeks and then out for approximately 3 weeks. This allows a school to accommodate more kids. They can handle up to 1000 at a time but have an enrollment of well over that 1000 because approximately 25% of the student body is always “tracked out”.

How does Year Round Benefit the Students?   

There are several benefits that have been linked to year round schools for students, specifically knowledge retention.  If you were given information and then asked to retain that information for a period of time, would you be able to do a better job in remembering something over a 3 week period (track out) or over 2.5 months (summer break for traditional calendar schools)?  I think we can all agree that it would be easier in the 3 week scenario. Studies also find that with the 9 weeks of school, 3 weeks track out, the students and teachers end up getting a nice break just about the time they need one before “burning out”. Students and teachers like the fact that the "break light" at the end of the tunnel is always in sight.   This also allows families to have the ability to take “mini” trips or vacations several times a year instead of having to try and cram everything into the summer. In speaking with teachers in year round schools, they really enjoy the breaks during the year and the “recharge” time.

What about parents that work?  

The largest concern I hear is from parents that work and don’t know what to do with their kids on these 3 week track outs.  For parents that work, you normally would have daycare or camps you send your kids to in the summer (if they are not old enough to be home by themselves).  There are lots of camps and daycares that are set up to service year round families with kids on track out. This problem is no problem what so ever. If you'd like help finding a list of year-round track out camps just let us know!

Year-Round is a Great Alternative! If you are moving to the Triangle area or if you are thinking about moving into an area where the middle school or elementary school assignment is a year round school, please don’t see it as a negative.  It is definitely different from the traditional schedule most of us grew up on but not necessarily a bad thing. All 3 of my kids went through elementary school on a year round schedule and loved it. When they made the switch to traditional, they were excited for the long summer break but found that they really missed the breaks after each nine weeks and after about 4 or 5 weeks in the summer, they were ready to go back to school and see all their friends.  

With the growing population of Wake County and the demand for housing and schools, year round schools is a great alternative for keeping up with the school growth and lack of space.  Schools can only be built so quickly and what is even harder to find is the land available for those schools. If you are looking to move to the area or move within the Triangle, give our team a call.  The Kima Real Estate Group is here to help you any way we can and would love the opportunity.

Chad Wingler Lead Buyer Specialist Chad@PeterKima.com 919-300-5421