ELPS Board Hears Presentations on "Balanced Calendar" and Goals of Sex Ed Advisory Board

Other things that happened at the School Board meeting:

In addition to the discussion of reopening Red Cedar Elementary, Monday night’s ELPS Board meeting included an update from Linda Vail, Health Officer for the Ingham County Health Department on the water at Glencairn School.

The Board also heard a presentation on the “Balanced Calendar” and received an update on the Sex Ed Advisory Board (SEAB).

The Superintendent of Holt Public Schools, Dr. David Hornack, gave a presentation to the Board on the “Balanced Calendar,” also known as “Year-Round Education” (YRE). Dr. Hornack has implemented the Balanced Calendar in two of Holts’ elementary schools. He is also the Executive Director of the National Association for Year-Round Education (NAYRE).

Hornack stated that one advantage of year-round schooling is that less remediation is required after a break. He added that research has found that it takes four to six weeks to remediate what students have “lost” over a twelve week summer break.

For his doctoral dissertation research, Dr. Hornack administered standardized math tests to students right before summer break and right after. There were two groups of students, traditional calendar students with a twelve week summer break, and balanced calendar students with a six week summer break. Traditional calendar students’ scored dropped by an average of five point after summer break. The balanced calendar students’ scored dropped by an average of two points.

Although “summer has a negative impact on all kids,” lower income students are affected more by traditional summer breaks, according to Hornack. This is known as the “faucet theory” which shows that when students are in school and “learning at roughly the same rate,” lower income students will be affected more when not in school. Hornack explained this is because students from higher income families tend to have greater exposure to enrichment activities when out of school.

Balanced calendar schools also offer additional learning and enrichment opportunities for students. This is known as “intersession” and Hornack says the benefits of intersession are “good for all kids.”

The typical calendar for a year-round school is 45 days of learning (in class) followed by fifteen days of break (30 days for summer break). Holt’s year-round schools loosely follow this prescription but tailor it to fit more closely with the district's traditional calendar schools. This way, Hornack reported, “Families with siblings in both type of calendar schools can have breaks together.”

Dr. Hornack shared that in the U.S., the number of balanced calendar schools has “increased by 26% between 2006 and 2011.” He also noted that “the top five performing countries in the world use the balanced calendar.” Benefits for teachers include “increased professionalism, less teacher burnout, and fewer teacher absences.”

Also part of Monday night’s meeting was a report from the Director of Sex Education for the district, Pinecrest teacher, Mary Ellen Vrbanac. She stated that the Sex Ed Advisory Board (SEAB), made up of community members, teachers, and students has made good progress in defining goals for itself and for the district sex education curriculum. View the Sex Ed Advisory Board’s goals here.

One of the goals SEAB has achieved is the development of “criteria and guidelines for the inclusion of guest speakers.” Last year, the Board of Education placed a ban on guest speakers as a result of parental complaints.

The SEAB believes guest speakers play a valuable role by adding to the curriculum. They state, “[g]uest speakers with relevant experience and expertise may be included in specific lessons to assist in meeting curriculum objectives.” Before a guest speaker is recommended to the Board of Education for approval, they must first meet the SEABs “mandatory criteria for recommending guest speakers and the person(s) recommending the speaker must give a reason for why the speaker has been recommended. After these two conditions have been successfully met, the SEAB can “recommend guest speakers to the East Lansing Board of Education for approval.” Before the Board of Education can approve a guest speaker, there must an “opportunity for community input through…public hearings.”

Vrbanac indicated that the SEAB has identified three guest speakers it would like to include in the high school curriculum. Two of the speakers were previously approved by the board: “E.V.E. Ending Violent Encounters” and “Willow Teen Plaza Ingham County Adolescent Health.” The third is Dr. Matthew Allswede, Sparrow OBGYN Residency Director, who has been invited to present for potential BOE approval.

The three guest speakers will deliver their presentations at the next SEAB meeting, February 10, at 7 pm in the ELHS Board Room (lower level of the high school). All interested persons are welcome to attend.