[8/15/03]Summer vacation is just a memory now, but Vicksburg Warren School District administrators will consider making such 12-week breaks a thing of the past.

Superintendent James Price said Thursday he and other administrators are studying the feasibility of year-round school with three-week breaks between nine-week sessions.

“We’re exploring it as a viable option for meeting the needs of these students,” Price said. “We don’t know what it would entail yet. We’re just looking.”

Students in the 9,200-student school district attend school 180 days each year, and that number would remain the same. Having school year-round would result in having four nine-week sessions with breaks between and no school in July.

Remedial teaching would be offered during the breaks to allow students who are falling behind a chance to improve skills and enrichment courses for those who are excelling.

Price became superintendent July 1 and has announced several changes, including tougher disciplinary actions that, through Warren County Youth Court, will hold parents and students more accountable for behavior.

Some educators at South Park Elementary School agreed with the idea of a year-round calendar. “I think it has a lot of merit in that it would keep children on track all year,” said Linda Herrod, principal of South Park Elementary School. “It would perhaps keep children focused.

“They might retain knowledge longer, which would enhance test scores,” she said.

Two teachers at the school, Candace Logue and Lynn Case, were also in support of the change.

“There are a lot of students who do not understand or are not able to gain the skills in nine weeks,” Logue said. “During the remediation time, classes are smaller and teachers would be able to give students individual attention.”

Herrod and Case were in a group of administrators who visited a Texas “year-round” school.

Logue and Herrod said the adjustment would be hard for parents and the community. “It’s a major change,” Logue said. “People would have to change their way of thinking.”

Bettie Jones, a special education resource teacher at Warren Central High School, said she would like to see the plan before deciding whether she is for or against it.

“There are positive sides and negative sides to going year-round,” she said. “I’ll have to wait and see the results of Dr. Price’s study before I form an opinion on it.”