“FORT WAYNE – Alden Laughlin, 6, walked down the halls of Imagine Schools on Broadway on Tuesday bearing the weight of a new Batman backpack he’d been showing off to his fellow first-graders.
He and his classmates, wearing uniforms yet to be sullied, were in the midst of a dismissal drill. Teachers asked for peace and quiet, but students couldn’t help from chatting and occasionally swatting each other with their backpack straps.
‘This is my first day of school!’ Alden announced, beaming. ‘I get to see all my friends!’
Alden, who says he loves school, got what he considers good news this year: Starting this fall, his long summer breaks will be a thing of the past.
This summer, the downtown charter school got the go-ahead to switch to a year-round school calendar. The calendar, known in education circles as a balanced calendar, will shorten summer vacation but provide more breaks throughout the year for the roughly 420 students in kindergarten through fifth grade who attend the school.
Principal Ra’Chelle Spearman believes the calendar change will increase information retention, reduce student absences, cut down on student burnout and decrease review time after summer break.
Imagine officials said their year-round calendar is the only one of its kind at a public school in the Fort Wayne area.
Under the new 182-day schedule, students will have a five-week summer break with two three-week breaks around spring and Christmas and a two-week break in October.
The traditional 180-day public school calendar, in contrast, typically starts in mid-August and runs through late May or early June, with a one-week spring break and a two-week winter break.
During the breaks, Spearman said, the school plans to offer various enrichment opportunities, such as providing students with extra help in math.
Although balanced calendars are rare in Fort Wayne, they are gaining traction in other parts of the state. Indianapolis Public Schools and Hancock County’s Greenfield-Central Schools approved balanced calendars this year, and several other districts are considering the option.
Fairfield Elementary School in Fort Wayne Community Schools had a balanced calendar for five years in the mid-1990s, but officials decided to end it, citing decreased attendance, teachers’ inability to attend graduate classes, poor building maintenance and low student achievement.
Spearman says other Imagine schools that use the calendar have seen positive results.
‘I like the idea,’ said Candi Dix, who waited in her car Tuesday to pick up her daughter, kindergartener Bradie Dix.
‘It’s nice because the kids can continue learning, and they’re not going to have to relearn everything by the time they get back from summer.'”
Article published on August 10, 2011 by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette