Paideia Academy Sticks With Year-Round School Schedule

Most public school students in Apple Valley went back to their books for the 2011-12 school year after Labor Day weekend.

But by that time, the students at were well into their school routine—four weeks in, in fact.

The public K-8 charter school in Apple Valley, which opened in 2005, has always used a year-round school schedule. Over the years, administrators have tweaked the system to become what teachers and parents of the 394 students now see as a nearly ideal schedule for promoting learning, retention and quality break time.

“Honestly, at this point I would have a hard time going back to a traditional 196 calendar,” said first-grade teacher Beth Odegard.

At Paideia, the first nine-week quarter of the school year begins in August, after which students get a two-week fall break. After another nine weeks, it’s three weeks off, a third nine-week quarter then three weeks off, then a seven-week summer after the fourth quarter.

When the school opened, the five-week summer break in the schedule did seem too short, said parent Stephanie Abraham. The current timeline, however, will be in place each year for the next few years, at least, said school Director Joyce Lee.

End-of-the-year surveys of Paideia families show that the year-round schedule is a high priority for many, Lee said, even though Paideia’s is not the most common 45-days-on, 15-days-off year-round format.

From a parent’s perspective, having shorter, periodic breaks has helped Abraham’s kids retain more of what they learn.

Abraham, who has a daughter in eighth grade and a son in fifth grade at Paideia, said she’s more inclined to encourage reviewing school materials during the shorter, periodic breaks than she would be during a nearly three-month summer.

“I’m a firm believer that the year-round program helps keep kids on top of their studies,” she said. “I just think there’s too much information that’s lost” during the traditional summer break.

The schedule also creates more opportunities to take family trips throughout the year, Abraham said.

And, she said, the schedule gets kids back to school in the fall just as they’re starting to become bored with summer, she said; the kids seem to like the system.

“They’ve been really refreshing for us,” she said of the breaks.

Some studies show benefits of year-round schooling much like Abrahams described, and also say that more remediation work can happen during school. Those who are critics of a year-round system point out inconclusive findings as far as the academic benefits, according to the National Education Association.

But Odegard said that for teachers, the shorter breaks mean less time spent reviewing from the previous year or quarter. And the breaks provide nice intervals for academic planning, she said, so they can focus more on the kids during school.

One challenge she has heard is that sometimes kids have a hard time seeing kids on a traditional school schedule not in school during times when Paideia kids are. But because Paideia students come from across the south metro, being at school also means they get to see friends again that they might not have seen during a break.

Abraham’s daughter will move on to a traditional high school setting after this year, so she’ll have to get used to a different yearly schedule.

“I don’t know if it will be challenging,” Abraham said, but she said her daughter seems excited to see what the differences will be.