“FORT WAYNE – Starting next school year, Imagine Schools on Broadway will 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 local charter school.
In December, the Imagine on Broadway board voted to approve the change but needed the plan to be approved by Ball State University, which it did last week.
Ball State is the authorizing agency behind the school and approved its charter.
The new balanced calendar will have 182 days of instruction, with the first day of school set for Aug. 8.
Students at the charter school would 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.
Principal Ra’Chelle Spearman said she’s confident the calendar change will increase information retention, reduce student absences, cut down on student burnout and decrease review time after summer break.
Eventually, she said, the switch could also allow the charter school to provide tutoring and day camps for students during the breaks.
‘We’re excited,’ Spearman said of the calendar change. ‘It’s very unique to the area and allows us to offer the community something different, and hopefully it’s something that will help enrich students academically.’
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.
Other Imagine schools that use the calendar have seen positive results, Spearman said.
Board members at Imagine MASTer Academy, which serves about 800 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, have not yet publicly discussed a similar calendar switch.
So far, Spearman said, the move has been largely supported by the board, staff, and families.
Spearman said 93 percent of her staff said they approved of the move.
According to surveys given to 244 parents, she said, 74 percent supported the decision.
Spearman said the switch would cost the school several thousand dollars in additional busing costs but little else.
She said she didn’t expect the change would cause problems for parents who might also have children enrolled in other school districts who follow a more traditional calendar.
‘If the schedule is what works best for an individual student, I’m sure parents will make the right decisions,’ she said.
‘I’m sure they’ll make whatever sacrifice they need to make to bring them here.'”
Article published on June 1, 2011 by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette