Alachua County Public Schools drops elementary school from year-round instruction plan
Alachua County Public Schools will convert one of its two proposed elementary schools to year-round instruction, while the other will remain on the standard 10-month calendar.
While initially meant to convert to year-round instruction, the Florida Department of Education approved the district’s request to keep Metcalfe Elementary School on a traditional 10-month calendar, a news release said. Rawlings Elementary School will move forward with a year-round schedule to be implemented in the 2024-25 school year as planned.
The school year starts earlier on a year-round schedule and breaks are distributed more evenly throughout the year. This means no long summer break, which the district said leads to what is referred to as the “summer slide,” or the loss of learning that comes with an extended period of no school.
![A sign outside the Alachua County School Board office in Gainesville, Fla. July 1, 2020. As state and local cases of COVID-19 are on the rise, a couple hundred students are coming back to eleven schools in the district for summer reading camps. [Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun]](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/sXocIVaIx3YAieQQRpRT9g--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the-gainesville-sun/2ee42b38a1f8e1b949a4e44f601e9a80)
About the model: Goodbye, long summers: Two Alachua County schools will have year-round instruction
Other potential benefits the pilot program would offer, a news release said, are increased opportunities for ongoing academic support and targeted intervention, fewer challenges with attendance and behavior, continuity in programs and structure, and stronger bonds between students and staff, among others.
House Bill 891 established the Year-round School Pilot Program, The Sun previously reported, in which the Department of Education (DOE) can help school districts implement a four-year, year-round school program for elementary schools. The bill states that the program must be established in at least one elementary school in the chosen district to study issues, benefits and schedule options for implementing year-round schooling for all students.
The commissioner of education was required to choose five school districts to participate in the program that represent a variety of demographics and include an urban, suburban and rural school district. Alachua County was one of those districts.
ACPS said families at the schools are being notified of the change and receiving the appropriate calendar for their school as well as information about the option to request a zoning exception for their child. If approved for a zoning exception, a news release said, a student at Rawlings could attend Metcalfe and vice versa to choose the calendar they prefer.
“School starts for students at Rawlings on July 16 under the new calendar, and while this is still more than two months away, we do encourage families to have those discussions and begin the process of applying for a zoning exception soon if that's what they decide is best for them,” said Jackie Johnson, ACPS spokesperson, in an email to The Sun.
Additional information on zoning exceptions is available at https://www.sbac.edu/zoning.
Johnson also said school board members previously expressed concern that both schools — located fairly close to each other — would be converting to year-round instruction.
“Moving forward with the year-round calendar at Rawlings and staying with a 10-month calendar at Metcalfe gives families at both schools the option to select a nearby school with a program that works for their family,” said Johnson in an email to The Sun.
The complete year-round calendar is available at www.sbac.edu/yearroundschools.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Alachua County Public Schools finalizes year-round school plan
