year round

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year round
By Julianne

Approximately half of the schools in our area are year round. Most teachers like the arrangement for a number of reasons. Short breaks more often gives you a chance to regroup without having to wait until summer. Teachers
who want to earn extra money regularly sub in their own school when they are "off track". Some teaching positions provide extra days of work as well. Another plus in our area is that all year round schools are air conditioned! And most of them are in newer buildings. Teachers have the opportunity to travel during the off season - something we traditional track folks can rarely do.
On

the down side there are no long, lazy days of summer to bore you. The typical summer break is less than a month in length. As mentioned earlier, if you have children of your own you need to think about their schedules. I had three kids in year round school while I worked in a traditional setting. We did a kind of child care dance for a couple of years until they were in middle school. I also was able to occasionally take them to work with me which was fun for all of us. They enjoyed being the "big kids" in my kindergarten room and I enjoyed the extra sets of hands.

The worst years were when my kids were split between the year round elementary school and the traditional calendar middle school while I was on a different traditional calendar at a school in another district! We really had to plan ahead to get a vacation.

If you want some first hand information from teachers who are in a year round school I may be able to get you an e-mail address or two from my kids' elementary. I'm still in touch with a couple of the teachers there and I'm sure they'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.