school year marks start of VWSD bonus week|[07/20/08]

The upcoming school year will ring in a new way of doing things at the Vicksburg Warren School District. A bonus week will be part of the 2008-2009 schedule.

After more than a year of study and suggestions, the new calendar was approved by the district in December. Now it’s time to put plans into action, and superintendent Dr. James Price said he’s sure it’s going to work.

“We’re excited, and we’ve been working on it hard,” said Price. “Especially right now when other districts are reeling from the high cost of fuel and considering moving to a four-day school week. We’re doing just the opposite.”

The idea behind the bonus week, or intercession week, is to help students who fall behind during a nine-week period catch up throughout the year, rather than having to wait for summer school.

The hope is that, by allowing students the opportunity to get back on track immediately after each grading period, they will have a better chance of understanding future material and, thus, boost the graduation rate.

“We are required to teach benchmark standards for state testing and, in order to teach them correctly, we must spend the 36 weeks of the school year teaching that; there’s not time for remediation or enrichment,” said Price. “Our goal is to have every child reach their fullest potential, and teaching state standards alone is not reaching that goal.”

Each nine-week period will be followed by a bonus week, for a total of four – Oct. 6-10, Jan. 5-8, March 16-20 and June 2-5.

During those weeks, students who need remediation will receive help. Those who do not need help will not be required to attend school, but the district is working on programs that will allow all students to take advantage of the bonus weeks.

“Some field trips have already been planned for these weeks, particularly through the (gifted) program,” said Price. “We’re also pushing, in the high schools, the ability to take classes even if the student has not failed them and then keep up with the work load online. This will make early graduation possible.

“Next year,” he said, “we’ll be adding enrichment activities which will be anything from teaching minicourses to picking up advanced courses … just whatever the students have an interest in.”

Work during the bonus week will be accomplished in half days. The schedule will replace summer school in the elementary and junior high schools; while summer school would cost about $125 per student, the bonus week is free and buses will roll.

The bonus week calendar includes no more school days than the 2007-2008 school year. The fiscal year is longer – summer has been shorted by about a week – but all breaks have been preserved with the exception of Thanksgiving which has been shorted from a week to three days. Students will still have two weeks off for Christmas and a week off for spring break.

“When others are cutting, we’re going to add,” said Price. “The more opportunity teachers have to interact with students, the better off we’ll be.”

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