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Residents To Be Polled On Longer School Year

Residents To Be Polled On Longer School Year image
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Day
25
Month
June
Year
1970
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Questionnaires will be mailed put to 1,500 Ann Arbor School District residents Monday to determine their views on the split trimester plan. Abrochare and letter explaining the extended schoolyear plan also will be sent this weekend to those same residents- 1,260 from the city and 240 from Ann Arbor Township. The eitizens to be surveyed were chosen randomly by the University's Bureau of School Services. School officials stress that even if a majority of residents are in favor of the plan, it does not necessarily mean it would go into effect in Ann Arbor. The split trimester plan is only one of six currently being considered by the Michigan Legislature. Ann Arbor is one of six Michigan communities which last year received grants from the Michigan Department of Education to assess community feelings and the feasibility of instituting different year round school plans. In order for the split trimester plan to go into effect, special legislation would be needed in order for the school districts to receive full state aid. The staff of the Ann Arbor Public Schools and about 1,3001 secondary school students werej surveyed about the plan inl May. The results of the community, student and school staff sur-J veys will be made public later j this summer. Those residents being sur-j veyed are asked to read thel material carefully and return I the questionnaire in the stampedl envelope which will be provided. 1 All replies will remain anonymous. Uuder the split trimester plan, the school year would be divided into three units, or trimesters, with each unit then divided into two parts. This would pro vide six terms of 36 instructional days each for a total of 2Í6 class days each year. A summer vacation for all students during the month of August is included in the plan. In addition to this, each student would be required to be on vacation for one term each I year. j These terms would be II approximately Sept. 5-Oct. 24 ; Oct. 27-Dec. 19; Jan. 2-Feb. 20; Feb. 23-April 23; April 17-Junel 6, and June 11-July 31. The total vacation period for each student would thus be nearly three months, or approximately the same as students have now during the summer. In determining the vacation period for each student, parents wouli specify three choices for each child, and the school would then assign the vacation eriod f rom these preferences. ïvery effort would be made to ïonor -family vacation choices. The Split Trimester plan is known to have Jong-rarige economic advantages through space savings. The space savings all relate to the reduced number of new classrooms whioh wo uld be needed, because only five-sixths of the student population would be in school at any given time. If the Split Trimester plan were inaugurated by 1974,, -for example, it is estimated that five fewer elementary schools and one less junior high school would be needed between then and 1979. This would save the taxpayers roughly $26 million in bonded indebtedness over the next 30 y e ars.

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Ann Arbor News
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