Editorial:Year-round school is worth exploring

Talk about it

Year-round school is the idea that never quite goes away in Independent School District 196.

The district’s school board agreed Monday to allow superintendent Jane Berenz to explore the idea, perhaps at a single school or even as a school within a school. It’s not the first time the idea has come up in the district. The possibility of year-round school has been explored at least three times in District 196, dating back to at least 1970. The idea never grew to fruition, but times change, and so do needs.

Where before the district viewed year-round school as a way to deal with rapid growth, now it has become a selling point, something to differentiate one school from others in the district, and perhaps to attract students from other districts.

Appealing to students from outside District 196 will become increasingly important as enrollment starts to decline inside the district.

The district is still early in this process, but for now at least it does not appear a move to year-round school would affect Rosemount students directly. The only school mentioned so far has been Thomas Lake Elementary School in Eagan. But we still think this is a worthwhile discussion for a school district to have.

Education is changing. Students don’t learn the same way they did before, and there are some demonstrated benefits to year-round school.

A school district has to be open to change if it wants to continue to serve its students well.

Tags: editorials, rosemount, opinion