For First Time in 2 Decades, District 196 Weighs Year-Round School Option

Could year-round schooling come to School District 196?

At an annual District 196 School Board meeting on Monday, district officials discussed the advantages and drawbacks of the concept—the first formal conversation on the subject in roughly two decades.

District 196 contains a small chunk of southeastern Burnsville, where . In addition, according to the latest enrollment report, 497 students living in the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District chose to attend District 196 through open enrollment over the school year 2010 to 2011.

At the meeting, school board members asked district staff to explore the concept and return to the board with answers concerning the cost, feasibility and desire for year-round school. If the idea is implemented, it would likely be on a limited, voluntary scale, with one school or magnet program choosing to adopt it on an experimental, pilot-program basis, district officials said.

"It’s not really an idea yet, it’s a concept," said board member Art Coulson. "I think the implementation of it is really the tricky part, and that’s the part that [Superintendent Jane Berenz] and the administration are looking at, whether we can do it in a way that meets the needs of families students and staff."

Students' learning and academic retention suffer during the three-month-long summer break that is a fixture of traditional school years, Berenz and school board member Mike Roseen said.

District staff and board members have also received a number of public inquiries in support the concept, Berenz and Coulson said during the meeting. At least one school administrator, Mary Jelinek of  in Eagan, also has expressed interest in the concept, according to district spokesperson Tony Taschner.

The district weighed year-round school throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, when Eagan, Apple Valley and Rosemount schools were experiencing a population boom, Taschner said. The last time the concept was seriously considered was in 1992, although it was ultimately rejected.

, the public K-8 charter school in Apple Valley, .

Before year-round schooling could be implemented at a school facility, district officials would have to determine how much it would cost to run transportation year-round and what the year-round calendar would look like, among other considerations.

“I’ve felt for quite a while that continued learning without that three months off in the summer would be beneficial," Roseen said. "I think it’s worth exploring. As to whether or not it’s something that would work, we’ve have to sit down and figure that out."