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School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties is developing an innovative strategy for addressing overcrowding in district schools: encouraging Chapin-Ballentine parents to move to Northeast Columbia.
That's the only explanation I can see for the staggered, year-round calendar currently being floated by interim superintendent Herb Berg.
Berg and the school board say they'll implement a year-round calendar in the all three district high schools and the three elementary schools in Ballentine and Chapin if a proposed $243 million bond referendum fails this fall.
Under the proposal, students would be split into four groups, ensuring that no more than 75 percent of students are in school at any one time. Parents unable to sell their homes and move to the far more innovative Richland District 2 would continue to have their children on the traditional August-May calendar, while others would be split into three remaining pools with "summer" breaks coming in the spring, winter and fall.
Personally, I'm in favor of the bond referendum. District 5 facilities are woefully in need of renovation and new construction. But the calendar currently under consideration is nothing more than an attempt to blackmail the voters into supporting the bond referendum.
According to top official in the S.C. Department of Education, the calendar is also probably completely unworkable.
"State law, and essentially, federal law require PASS testing and that those tests be administered to all students at the same time. You are immediately going to ensure that three-quarters of your students are completely unprepared to take that test," said the source who requested anonymity.
The official also pointed out problems with when graduating students could enroll in college.
Stay tuned....
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