Flint Community Schools Superintendent Derrick Lopez, with Freeman Elementary students El’Geno Garland, Mickial Sadler, and Dejuane Carroll, said the district tried a balanced calendar at the school for three years, with good results. (Photo: Daniel Mears / The Detroit News, The Detroit News)
Flint — The calendar in Flint Community Schools will start classes earlier in the summer, end them later in the spring and include six multi-day breaks as part of a new effort to keep children academically engaged and let teachers recharge.
Flint public schools is positioning itself to be the largest urban district in Michigan to have a “balanced” calendar for all of its schools for 2019-20, a move education experts say can reduce summer learning loss and provide more learning opportunities for students who lack them.
A balanced calendar features 180 days of instruction just like a traditional school calendar, but students in Flint will start the school year Aug. 7, end classes June 18 and get six breaks of four to 10 days — called “intersessions” — throughout the year.
Students will be in class for roughly 35 school days to study defined units of work, followed by an intersession, Flint Superintendent Derrick Lopez said.
Students who have not mastered the material will be asked to go to school during the intersession where they can get help from teachers and other staff before moving on to the next unit, Lopez said.
Intersessions will include both instruction periods and activities, giving students both mental and physical stimulation during break periods, school officials said.
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