Schools empty during breaks: No classes planned during longer fall vacations at local districts

Students moaned and groaned about starting school earlier than usual this summer but they are about to be out of school for a week or more with one of the longer breaks planned throughout the school year.

And, at least for this year, no one is being asked to come back to school during the break to get caught up where they have fallen behind or to get extra help.

That was one of the goals when schools moved to extended school calendars in the past year but officials haven’t set up the funding negotiated with teachers over hours or decided about how to get kids to schools over those breaks.

Clark-Pleasant planned to spend at least half of its two-week fall break providing extra help to third-graders who were behind in reading and will take the state’s IREAD-3 exam next spring. Students must pass that exam to move on to fourth-grade reading lessons. And Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson wanted students who didn’t perform well on ISTEP or whose teachers thought they needed extra help to review lessons with teachers during the break.

But that’s not going to happen this year.

Providing an extra week of third-grade reading instruction would cost about $5,000, and recently Clark-Pleasant decided to spend that money on a reading program third-graders will use throughout the year, director of elementary curriculum Sue Whitney said.

This story appears in the print edition of Daily Journal. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.