ANOTHER YEAR-AROUND SCHOOL

A Catholic school in St. Louis County recently opted for a year-around schedule. Our Lady of the Presentation School is the first in the St. Louis Archdiocese to choose such as schedule. It joins one public school district, the Francis Howell district in St. Charles County, which operates its elementary school year-around.

With 525 school districts in Missouri this fall, year-around schooling is obviously rare. It costs more. Many school buildings are not air conditioned. Most teacher contracts run nine months.

But some educators wonder if three months off during the summer means teachers and students must devote the start of each traditional school year with considerable review of material covered the year before. Plus many students today come from families in which both parents or single parents work. With these considerations and others, year-around schooling is a strategy that deserves continued attention.