Preliminary Criteria for Conversion of Elementary Schools to the 45/15 Multi-Track Calendar
Staff will consider all the criteria shown below when developing recommendations for conversion of schools from traditional calendars to multi-track calendars, but will be guided by the relative importance of the groupings as listed.
The most important criteria will be capacity.
- How much capacity (space for new students) will be gained through conversion of a school? Can the capacity gain be optimized through adjustment of mobile/modular classrooms, and does the capacity gain provide space for special needs students as well as general enrollment growth?
The second most important group of criteria involve the size of the school, the impact of conversion on healthy school demographics, and the impact of conversion on the instructional program of the school.
- Does the school have sufficient projected membership to organize at least one class at each grade level on each track?
- Will conversion of a school, and any necessary associated student reassignment, have a negative impact on the district’s efforts to maintain a healthy demographic mix at all schools?
- Will conversion of a school have a negative impact on the instructional program of the school?
The third most important group of criteria includes the history of interest in year-round education shown by the community and the potential for enrollment growth in the areas assigned to the school.
- Is the student population growing in the base area of the school? Will the capacity gained through conversion be utilized without reassignment or movement of mobile classrooms?
- How many students residing in the base area of the school currently attend year-round schools through the application process and how many students from the base area applied to year-round but were not selected?
- Is the staff of the school interested in converting to the 45/15 calendar for instructional reasons?
The fourth group of criteria includes consideration of availability of alternatives for families and teachers, availability of middle school matching calendars, the impact of conversion on student assignment, and the ability of the school facility to support year-round multi-track utilization.
- Is there a traditional calendar school that could be made available to parents and teachers who can’t make the year-round calendar work for their family?
- Does a school have a year-round middle school feeder option or can such an option be created? How much reassignment would be associated with creation of a middle school feeder option?
- Will conversion to a year-round calendar require reassignment of some of a school’s base area because of the large number of students that might return from existing year-round schools? If so, how much reassignment is required?
- Will conversion of a school enable the Board of Education to remove a cap on enrollment or return spot nodes to the base assignment area of the school?
- How will conversion of a school impact the needs of transfer students at that school?
- Does the school facility have obstacles that would inhibit or restrict effective multi-track programming? For example, are there physical obstacles to the movement of materials on carts between classrooms? If so, can those obstacles be addressed through minor facilities modifications such as construction or reconfiguration of ramps or sidewalks? Will renovation plans create poor learning conditions? Will poor air-conditioning create poor learning conditions?